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BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN 
ELOQUENCE 


BY 


ROBERT  IRVING  FULTON 

DEAN  OK  THE   SCHOOL  OF  ORATORY  AND   PROFESSOR   OF  ORATORY 
IN   THE  OHIO   WESLEYAN   UNIVERSITY 


THOMAS  CLARKSON  TRUEBLOOD 

PROFESSOR   OF   ORATORY    IN    THE    UNIVERSITY   OF  MICHIGAlJ 


GINN  AND  COMPANY 

BOSTON  •  NEW  YORK  •  CHICAGO  •  LONDON 


COPYRIGHT,  1912,  BY  ROBERT  IRVING  FULTON 

AND  THOMAS  CLARKSON  TRUEBLOOD 

ALL  RIGHTS   RESERVED 

912.8 


^5 


(gfte   satfteneum   33reg< 

GINN  AND  COMPANY  •  PRO- 
PRIETORS •  BOSTON  •  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

This  volume  is  the  outgrowth  of  a  clearly  defined  classroom 
demand  for  a  critical  study  of  the  message  and  methods  of  the 
great  English  and  American  orators  whose  utterances  have 
molded  public  opinion  and  guided  the  destinies  of  the  two 
great  Anglo-Saxon  nations.  Its  object  is  to  conserve  the  stu- 
dent's time  by  providing,  in  one  book,  that  which  he  has  here- 
tofore secured  by  a  somewhat  erratic  study  of  many  volumes. 

Our  method  is  that  of  "  precept  and  example,"  giving  those 
salient  points  in  the  lives  and  experiences  of  the  orators  treated 
that  may  serve  as  a  guide  to  the  student  of  oratory,  and  fur- 
nishing as  much  of  their  selected  speeches  as  may  be  profit- 
ably studied  and  assimilated  within  the  time  assigned  to  this 
subject  in  the  curriculum.  Our  plan  is  to  stimulate  a  study 
of  the  sources  of  oratorical  power  growing  out  of  the  person- 
ality, motives,  and  methods  of  the  orators  considered ;  to  set 
forth  the  occasion,  the  circumstances,  and  the  object  of  some 
of  their  most  effective  speeches ;  and  to  reprint  such  inspiring 
examples  of  eloquence  as  may  enrich  the  mind  of  the  student 
and  strengthen  his  ideals  of  public  speaking. 

Our  selection  includes  twenty-two  of  the  most  noted  Eng- 
lish-speaking orators  of  the  past  one  hundred  and  fifty  years. 
We  have  not  undertaken  a  review  of  the  oratory  of  a  more  re- 
mote past  or  a  study  of  the  many  excellent  present-day  speak- 
ers whose  careers  have  not  yet  closed.  The  desire  for  a  consid- 
eration of  other  celebrated  debaters  and  orators,  even  in  the 
period  chosen,  may  be  felt  by  some  of  our  readers  as  it  is  by 

iii 


iv  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

US,  but  our  choice  has  been  carefully  made,  and  limited  space 
precludes  an  extension  of  the  list.  It  is  believed,  however, 
that  a  close  study  of  these  will  reach  better  results  than  a 
cursory  view  of  a  greater  number  of  speakers. 

A  prefatory  list  of  the  authors  read  in  the  preparation  of 
diis  book  would  be  necessarily  incomplete,  if  not  suggestive 
of  invidious  distinctions  ;  but  we  wish  to  acknowledge  here 
our  indebtedness  to  many  sources  of  information,  such  as 
books  on  oratory  and  orators,  history,  biography,  magazine 
articles,  and  newspapers.  Out  of  a  mass  of  biographical 
material  we  have  considered  each  orator  from  the  viewpoint 
of  his  art,  and  have  attempted  to  make  such  analysis  as  will 
reveal  the  main  essentials  of  his  success  as  a  pablic  speaker. 
We  trust  that  this  conservation  of  oratorical  thought  may  be 
attractive  to  the  general  reader,  and  that  teachers  and  stu- 
dents in  secondary  schools  and  colleges  may  be  interested  in 
this,  another  effort  to  diffuse  knowledge  that  may  aid  in  the 
study  of  that  art  of  arts  —  oratory. 

ROBERT  I.  FULTON 
THOMAS  C.  TRUEBLOOD 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Alphabetical  List  of  Orators ix 

Alphabetical  List  of  Speeches x 


CHATHAM     I 

1.  Against  the  Stamp  Act 5 

2.  Attempt  to  subjugate  America 8 

(i)  America  Invincible 8 

(2)  Reconciliation 9 

(3)  Savage  Warfare 12 

3.  English  Constitution,  The 15 

BURKE 18 

1.  Conciliation  with  America 23 

(i)   Restoration  of  Order 23 

(2)  Objections  to  Force 25 

(3)  Just  Concessions 28 

FOX 32 

1.  American  War,  The 39 

2.  Rejection  of  Bonaparte's  Overtures 40 

(i)  England  the  Aggressor 40 

(2)  Policy  of  the  Bourbons 43 

(3)  War  a  State  of  Probation 45 

PITT  THE  YOUNGER 48 

r.  Abolition  of  the  Slave  Trade 53 

(i)   Immediate  Abolition 53 

(2)  Incurable  Injustice 57 

(3)  Atonement  for  Injustice 60 

ERSKINE 63 

I.  Defense  of  Stockdale 69 

(i)   Distortion  of  the  Context 69 

(2)  Libel  not  designed       72 

(3)  Liberty  of  the  Press 75 

V 


vi  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

PAGE 

SHERIDAN 78 

I.  Trial  of  Hastings 86 

(i)  -Hastings's  Maladministration 86 

(2)  Begum  Charge,  The 89 

(3)  Cruelties  inflicted 92 

O'CONNELL 96 

1.  Repeal  of  the  Union loi 

(i)  Repeal  Inevitable loi 

(2)  Ireland  for  the  Irish 104 

(3)  Freedom  for  Ireland 107 

2.  Demanding  Justice 109 

BROUGHAM 112 

I.  Parliamentary  Reform 118 

(i)  Property  Qualification 118 

(2)   Full  and  Free  Representation 122 

BRIGHT 126 

1,  Free  Trade 132 

(i)  Odious  Corn  Laws,  The 132 

(2)   Protection  a  Source  of  Pauperism 135 

2.  Defense  of  Canada 139 

GLADSTONE 143 

I.  Domestic  and  Foreign  Affairs 149 

(i)  Agricultural  Distress 149 

(2)  Foreign  Policy         152 

(3)  National  Equality 154 

,,^-     2.  Home  Rule  for  Ireland 157 

HENRY 160 

1.  Call  to  Arms,  The 168 

2.  Adoption  of  the  Constitution .    .  171 

(i)  Liberty  or  Empire 171 

(2)  Genius  of  Democracy 174 

(3)  The  President  a  King 177 

HAMILTON i8r 

1.  Compromises  of  the  Constitution 189 

(i)  Coercion  of  Delinquent  States 189 

(2)   Regulation  of  Commerce 193 

2.  United  States  Senate,  The 198 

(i)   Senate. a  Check  upon  the  House,  The 198 

(2)   State  Governments  Necessary 201 


CONTENTS  Tii 

PAGE 

CLAY 203 

1.  Greek  Revolution,  The 211 

2.  Sixty  Years  of  Sectionalism 214 

(i)  Dissolution  and  War  Inseparable 214 

(2)  Menace  of  Secession 217 

WEBSTER 220 

I.  Reply  to  Hayne 228 

(i)  Matches  and  Overmatches 228 

(2)  Massachusetts  and  South  Carolina 231 

^3)  Principles  of  the  Constitution 234 

(4)  Liberty  and  Union 239 

CALHOUN 242 

I.  Compromise  Measures 246 

(i)   Slavery  and  Disunion 246 

(2)  Abolition  or  Secession 249 

(3)  Preservation  of  the  Union "...  251 

CHOATE 254 

I.  Age  of  the  Pilgrims,  The 259 

(i)  Early  Heroism 259 

(2)  Foundations  of  Puritanism 262 

(3)  Struggles  at  Plymouth 265 

EVERETT 268 

I.  Character  of  Washington 275 

(i)  Contrast  with  Napoleon 275 

(2)  Solitary  Eminence,  His 278 

(3)  Moral  Grandeur,  His 280 

LINCOLN 282 

I.  Political  Issues     . 291 

(i)  House  Divided,  The 291 

(2)  Nebraska  Policy,  The 293 

(3)  Nationalizing  Slavery 295 

(4)  Social  Inequalities 298 

,  (5)   Distinction  of  Parties 300 

(6)  Disturbing  Element  of  Slavery 305 

(7)  Liberty  and  Prosperity 308 

PHILLIPS 313 

1.  M^urder  of  Lovejoy 323 

2.  John  Brown    .    '.    T 326 

3.  Toussaint  L'Ouverture 330 


viii  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

PAGE 

^  BEECHER 333 

I.  Civil  War  in  America 341 

(i)  Principles  of  Self-Government 341 

(2)  Regulated  Christian  Liberty 345 

(3)  Difficulties  of  Union 350 

(4)  Freedom  and  Prosperity 354 

(5)  Moral  Conflict,  A 357 

BROOKS 362 

I.  Sermon  of  Greeting 369 

(i)  Hopeful  Outlook,  A 369 

(2)  Incarnation  of  Christ 372 

(3)  Confirmation  of  Christ's  Testimony 376 

GRADY 380 

1.  New  South,  The 385 

2.  Race  Problem  in  the  South 391 

(i)   Racial  Conditions 391 

(2)  The  Issue 396 


ALPHABETICAL   LIST  OF  ORATORS 

PAGE 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward 333 

Bright,  John      126 

Brooks,  Phillips 362 

Brougham,  Henry 112 

Burke,  Edmund 18 

Calhoun,  John  C 242 

Chatham  (William  Pitt,  the  Earl  ok)    .    .    .    '. i 

Choate,  Rufus 254 

Clay,  Henry 203 

EksKiNE,  Thomas 63 

Everett,  Edward 268 

Ftix,  Charles  James 32 

Gladstone,  William  Ewart    . 143 

Grady,  Henry  Woodfin 380 

•Hamilton,  Alexander iSi 

•  Henry,  Patrick 160 

Lincoln,  Abraham 282 

O'CoNNELL,  Daniel 96 

Phillips,  Wendell 313 

Pitt,  William,  the  Younger 48 

Sheridan,  Richard  Brinsley 78 

»  Weuster,  Daniel 220 


ALPHABETICAL  LIST  OF  SPEECHES 


Abolition  or  Secession Calhoun 

Abolition  of  the  Slave  Trade Pitt  .    . 

Adoption  of  the  Constitution Henry  . 

Against  the  Stamp  Act Chatham 

Age  of  the  Pilgrims Choate  . 

Agricultural  Distress Gladstone 

America  Invincible Chatham 

American  War,  The Fox  .    . 

Atonement  for  Injustice F/tt  .    . 

Attempt  to  subjugate  America Chatham 

Begum  Charge,  The Sheridan 

Call  to  Arms,  The Henry  . 

Character  of  Washington Everett . 

Civil  War  in  America Beecher 

Coercion  of  Delinquent  States Hamilton 

Compromise  Measures Calhotui 

Compromises  of  the  Constitution Hamilton 

Conciliation  with  America Burke    . 

Confirmation  of  Christ's  Testimony Brooks  . 

Contrast  with  Napoleon Everett . 

Cruelties  Inflicted Sheridan 

Defense  of  Canada Bright  . 

Defense  of  Stockdale Enkine 

Demanding  Justice O'Connell 

Difficulties  of  Union Beecher 

Dissolution  and  War  Inseparable Clay  .     . 

Distinction  of  Parties Lincoln 

Distortion  of  the  Context Erskine 

Disturbing  Element  of  Slavery Lincoln 

Domestic  and  Foreign  Affairs Gladstone 

Early  Heroism ' Choate   . 

England  the  Aggressor Eox  .    . 

English  Constitution,  The Chatham 

Foreign  Policy Gladstone 

X 


ALPHABETICAL  LIST  OF  SPEECHES 


Foundation  of  Puritanism Choate  .     . 

Free  Trade Bright  .    . 

Freedom  and  Prosperity Beecher     . 

Freedom  of  Ireland O'Conne// 

Full  and  Free  Representation Brotighafn 

Genius  of  Democracy,  The Henry  . 

Greek  Revolution,  The C/a-y 

Hastings's  Maladministration Sheridan 

Home  Rule  for  Ireland Gladstone 

Hopeful  Outlook,  A Brooks  . 

House  Divided,  The Lincobi 

Immediate  Abolition Pitt  .    . 

Incarnation  of  Christ,  The Brooks  . 

Incurable  Injustice Bitt  .    . 

Ireland  for  the  Irish O'Conne// 

Issue,  The Grady    . 

John  Brown Phillips 

Just  Concessions  . Burke    . 

Libel  not  designed Erskine 

Liberty  and  Prosperity Lincoln 

Liberty  and  L^nion Webster 

Liberty  of  the  Press Erskine 

Liberty  or  Empire Hetiiy  . 

Massachusetts  and  South  Carolina  .    .    ."  .    .    .  Webster 

Matches  and  Overmatches Webster 

Menace  of  Secession Clay .     . 

Moral  Conflict,  A Beecher 

Moral  Grandeur Everett . 

Murder  of  Lovejoy Phillips 

National  Equality Gladstone 

Nationalizing  Slavery Lincoln 

Nebraska  Policy,  The Lincoln 

New  South,  The Grady    .    . 

Objections  to  Force Burke  .    . 

Odious  Corn  Laws,  The Bright 

Parliamentary  Reform Brougham 

Policy  of  the  Bourbons Fox  .     . 

Political  Issues Lincoln 

Preservation  of  the  Union Calhoun 

Principles  of  Self-Government Beecher 

Principles  of  the  Constitution Webster 


Xll 


BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 


Property  Qualification Brotigham 

Protection  a  Source  of  Pauperism Bright  . 

Race  Problem  in  the  South,  The Grady    . 

Racial  Conditions Grady   . 

Reconciliation Chatham 

Regulated  Christian  Liberty Beecher 

Regulation  of  Commerce Hamilton 

Rejection  of  Bonaparte's  Overtures Fox  .     . 

Repeal  Inevitable O" Connell 

Repeal  of  the  Union O'Connell 

Reply  to  Ilayne Webster 

Restoration  of  Order Btn-ke  . 

Savage  Warfare Chatham 

Senate  a  Check  upon  the  House,  The      ....  Hamilton 

Sermon  of  Greeting Brooks  . 

Sixty  Years  of  Sectionalism Clay .    . 

Slavery  and  Disunion Calhoun 

Social  Inequalities Lincoln 

Solitary  Eminence Everett . 

State  Governments  Necessary Hamilton 

Struggles  at  Plymouth Choate  . 

The  President  a  King Henry  . 

Toussaint  L'Ouverture Phillips 

Trial  of  Hastings *. Sheridan 

United  States  Senate,  The Hamilton 

War  a  State  of  Probation Fox  .    . 


PAGE 

ii8 
135 
391 
391 
9 
345 
193 
40 

lOI 
lOI 

228 

23 

12 

198 

369 

214 
246 
298 

278 
201 
265 
177 

330 
86 

198 
45 


BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN 
ELOQUENCE 


PITT,  EARL  OF  CHATHAM 

I 

William  Pitt,  the  Earl  of  Chatham  j(i  708-1 778),  had  his 
early  training  at  Eton  and  at  Trinity  College,  Oxford.  On 
account  of  ill  health  he 
did  not  finish  his  college 
course  but  spent  much 
time  in  travel  on  the  con- 
tinent of  Europe.  While 
his  collegiate  training  was 
not  so  extended  as  that  of 
some  of  his  compeers,  yet 
he  possessed  a  high  order 
of  intellect,  a  retentive 
memory,  and  the  tenacity 
of  purpose  which  enabled 
him  to  accomplish  more 
as  a  statesman  than  any 
of  his  contemporaries. 

His  rhetorical  studies 
were  very  thorough.  While 
at  Eton  and  Oxford,  and  for  years  afterwards,  he  devoted 
himself  to  the  study  and  translation  of  the  Greek  and  Roman 
orators.    Demosthenes  was  his  model,  and  it  was  his  favorite 


2    '"  '  '^'MmSH  -A N.D ^AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

pastime  to  translate  at  sight  and  read  aloud  the  masterpieces 
of  the  great  Greek.  To  perfect  his  style  still  further  he  read 
and  reread  the  sermons  of  Dr.  Barrow,  the  most  celebrated 
English  preacher  of  that  time.  That  he  might  gain  a  perfect 
knowledge  of  English  words  he  studied  Bailey's  Dictionary 
twice  through  and  knew  it  by  heart.  Words  whose  meaning 
was  not  easily  remembered  he  embodied  in  sentences,  that 
the  context  might  better  fix  the  meaning. 

His  training  in  elocution  was  unusual.  Probably  no  man 
of  genius  since  Demosthenes  and  Cicero  went  through  an 
equal  amount  of  drudgery  to  effect  his  purpose.  Like  the 
great  Athenian,  to  master  his  gesture  and  poise  and  to  perfect 
his  articulation  he  practiced  before  a  mirror.  He  gained  vocal 
power  and  compass  of  voice  by  reading  aloud  and  declaiming 
the  most  eloquent  passages  of  the  ancient  orators.  He  gained 
fluency  and  diction  by  untiring  practice  in  expressing  orally 
his  own  thought  on  public  questions. 

Physically  he  was  highly  equipped  by  nature.  He  was  tall, 
imposing  in  presence,  and  princely  in  bearing.  His  presence 
and  magnetic  personality  were  attractive  to  the  eye  before  he 
began  to  speak.  His  voice  combined  sweetness  and  power, 
now  like  a  flute  and  now  majestic  as  a  great  organ. 

As  an  orator  Chatham  commanded  every  source  of  power — 
conciliation,  pathos,  ridicule,  taunt,  and  exultation.  With  his 
keen  intuition  he  saw  at  a  glance  what  others  had  to  reason 
out.  His  language  was  simple,  almost  devoid  of  figures,  and 
was  perfectly  understood  at  the  first  hearing.  He  chose  to 
repeat  and  amplify,  that  none  should  misunderstand.  Having 
himself  mastered  the  subject,  he  labored  hard  to  make  it  plain 
to  his  audience.  Though  his  ideas  and  the  course  of  his 
speech  were  fully  worked  out,  yet  he  depended  on  the  occa- 
sion for  his  choice  of  words.  Possessed  of  the  gift  to  analyze 
complicated  subjects,  and  having  great  fluency  and  a  lofty 


PITT,  EARL  OF  CHATHAM  3 

imagination,  he  was  the  better  able  to  adapt  himself  to  the 
audience  and  give  rein  to  his  enthusiasm.  For  this  reason 
he  found  it  irksome  to  prepare  a  set  speech.  It  handicapped 
him  in  his  power  over  an  audience.  He  lost  force  and,  strange 
to  say,  dignity  at  such  times,  and  his  phrases  lacked  the 
purity  and  classical  energy  of  his  extempore  efforts.  As 
Macaulay  puts  it :  "His  merit  was  almost  entirely  rhetorical. 
He  did  not  succeed  either  in  exposition  or  in  refutation,  but 
his  speeches  abounded  with  lively  illustrations,  striking 
apothegms,  well-told  anecdotes,  happy  allusions,  passionate 
appeals.  His  invective  and  sarcasm  were  terrific.  Perhaps 
no  English  orator  was  ever  so  much  feared." 

In  action  he  was  so  varied  and  skillful  as  to  have  been 
called  the  Garrick  of  the  forum.  So  piercing  was  his  eye 
and  so  expressive  his  face  that  his  opponents  were  awed  into 
silence  by  the  severity  of  his  mien. 

His  great  strength  as  an  orator  and  statesman  lay  in  the 
purity  of  his  motives.  Nobody  doubted  his  sincerity  and  his 
keen  sense  of  the  national  honor  and  dignity.  The  spirit  of 
liberty  animated  his  whole  life.  The  American  people  will 
never  cease  to  Jionor  him  for  his  tireless  efforts  in  their  be- 
half. "I  rejoice,"  he  says,  "that  America  has  resisted. 
Three  millions  of  people  so  dead  to  all  the  feelings  of  liberty 
as  voluntarily  to  let  themselves  be  made  slaves  would  have 
been  fit  instruments  to  make  slaves  of  all  the  rest."  And 
again  he  exclaims,  "  If  I  were  an  American,  as  I  am  an  Eng- 
lishman, while  a  foreign  troop  was  landed  in  my  country,  I 
never  would  lay  down  my  arms  —  never —  never —  never  !  " 

So  courageous  was  he  in  his  attacks  on  Walpole,  and  so 
influential  did  he  become  in  Commons  that  Walpole  cried 
out,  "  We  must  muzzle  that  terrible  cornet  of  horse."  It  was 
the  weight  of  his  character,  his  moral  elevation,  his  integrity, 
his  firmness  of  purpose,  and  his  determination  to  be  reckoned 


4  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

with  that  made  the  opposition  respect  his  opinions  and  desire 
to  silence  him.  Coupled  with  his  honesty  of  purpose,  his 
force  of  will,  and  his  impulsiveness,  there  was  a  certain  au- 
thority in  his  manner,  an  autocratic  temperament,  and  a  domi- 
nating turn  of  mind  that  was  distasteful  to  his  friends  and 
galling  to  his  enemies.  But  in  spite  of  this  weakness  his 
place  in  history  is  secure.  Harvard  University  ranks  him 
with  Demosthenes,  Cicero,  St.  Chrysostom,  Bossuet,  Burke, 
and  Webster  as  one  of  the  seven  great  orators  of  the  world. 
He  came  in  the  golden  age  of  modern  oratory  and  must  be 
classed  among  the  most  powerful,  if  not  the  chief,  of  English- 
speaking  orators. 

Chatham  was  the  ideal  popular  statesman.  Under  his 
leadership  England  reached  the  highest  position  among 
nations.  He  cannot  be  ranked  among  the  great  debaters,  but 
he  was  a  great  advocate  and  was  listened  to  with  profound 
attention  from  the  time  of  his  first  speech  in  Commons. 
He  combined  all  the  elements  of  supremacy  as  an  orator. 
Franklin  exclaimed,  ''  I  have  sometimes  seen  eloquence  with- 
out wisdom,  and  often  wisdom  without  eloquence,  but  in  him 
I  have  seen  them  united  in  the  highest  degree." 

Of  Chatham's  speeches  few  have  been  preserved  complete. 
They  are  only  fragmentary,  but  of  unparalleled  power.  Many 
of  them  relate  to  conditions  in  America  previous  to  and  dur- 
ing the  American  Revolution.  The  speech  against  the  Stamp 
Act  was  made  in  1766.  Other  speeches  on  taxing  America 
followed  in  1774  and  in  1775,  and  on  the  American  war,  in 
1777,  and  his  last  speech  was  on  the  dismemberment  of  the 
Empire  in  the  conceding  of  independence  to  America.  He 
opposed  independence,  but  believed  it  was  not  even  then 
too  late  to  conciliate  the  colonies  and  retain  them  as  loyal 
provinces. 


PITT,  EARL  OF  CHATHAM  5 

AGAINST  THE  STAMP  ACT 

When  Lord  Grenville  brought  forward  the  Stamp  Act  for  the  taxation 
of  America,  Chatham  protested  against  the  measure  and  spoke  most  elo- 
quently against  its  adoption.  The  following  is  taken  from  his  speech  deliv- 
ered in  the  House  of  Commons,  January  14,  1766. 

Gentlemen,  Sir,  have  been  charged  with  giving  birth  to  sedition 
in  America.  Several  have  spoken  their  sentiments  with  freedom 
against  this  unhappy  act,  and  that  freedom  has  become  their  crime. 
Sorry  I  am  to  hear  the  liberty  of  speech  in  this  House  imputed  as 
a  crime.  But  this  imputation  shall  not  discourage  me.  It  is  a  lib- 
erty I  mean  to  exercise.  No  gentlemen  ought  to  be  afraid  to  exer- 
cise it.  It  is  a  liberty  by  which  the  gentleman  who  calumniates  it 
might  have  profited.  He  ought  to  have  profited.  He  ought  to  have 
desisted  from  his  project. 

The  gentleman  tells  us  America  is  obstinate :  America  is  almost 
in  open  rebellion.  I  rejoice  that  America  has  resisted.  Three  mil- 
lions of  people  so  dead  to  all  the  feelings  of  liberty,  as  voluntarily 
to  let  themselves  be  made  slaves,  would  have  been  fit  instruments 
to  make  slaves  of  all  the  rest.  I  come  not  here  armed  at  all  points 
with  law  cases  and  acts  of  Parliament,  with  the  statute  book  doubled 
down  in  dog's  ears,  to  defend  the  cause  of  liberty.  I  would  not  de- 
bate a  point  of  law  with  the  gentleman :  I  know  his  abilities.  I  have 
been  obliged  to  his  diligent  researches.  But,  for  the  defence  of  lib- 
erty, upon  a  general  principle,  upon  a  constitutional  principle,  it  is  a 
ground  on  which  I  stand  firm ;  on  which  I  dare  meet  any  man. 

Since  the  accession  of  King  William,  many  ministers,  some  of 
great,  others  of  moderate  abilities,  have  taken  the  lead  of  govern- 
ment. None  of  these  thought  or  even  dreamed  of  robbing  the  colo- 
nies of  their  constitutional  rights.  That  was  reserved  to  mark  the 
era  of  the  late  administration :  not  that  there  were  wanting  some, 
when  I  had  the  honor  to  serve  his  Majesty,  to  propose  to  me  to 
burn  my  fingers  with  an  American  Stamp  Act.  With  the  enemy 
at  their  back,  with  our  bayonets  at  their  breasts,  in  the  depth  of 
their  distress  perhaps  the  Americans  would  have  submitted  to  the 


6  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

imposition ;  but  it  would  have  been  taking  an  ungenerous  and 
unjust  advantage. 

The  gentleman  boasts  of  his  bounties  to  America  !  Are  not  those 
bounties  intended  finally  for  the  benefit  of  this  kingdom  ?  If  they 
are  not,  he  has  misapplied  the  national  treasures.  I  am  no  courtier 
for  America,  —  I  stand  up  for  this  kingdom.  I  maintain  that  the 
Parliament  has  a  right  to  bind,  to  restrain  America.  Our  legisla- 
tive power  over  the  colonies  is  sovereign  and  supreme.  When  two 
countries  are  connected,  like  England  and  her  colonies,  without  be- 
ing incorporated,  the  one  must  necessarily  govern ;  the  greater  must 
rule  the  less ;  but  so  rule  it  as  not  to  contradict  the  fundamental 
principles  that  are  common  to  both. 

The  gentleman  asks,  "  When  were  the  colonies  emancipated  ? " 
I  desire  to  know  when  they  were  made  slaves.  But  I  will  not 
dwell  upon  words.  When  I  had  the  honor  of  serving  his  Majesty, 
I  availed  myself  of  the  means  of  information  which  I  derived  from 
my  office ;  I  speak,  therefore,  from  knowledge.  My  materials  were 
good ;  I  was  at  pains  to  collect,  to  digest,  to  consider  them ;  and  I 
will  be  bold  to  affirm  that  the  profits  of  Great  Britain  from  the 
trade  of  the  colonies,  through  all  its  branches,  are  two  millions  a  year. 
This  is  the  fund  that  carried  you  triumphantly  through  the  last  war. 
The  estates  that  were  rented  at  two  thousand  pounds  a  year,  three- 
score years  ago,  are  at  three  thousand  pounds  at  present.  These 
estates  sold  then  for  from  fifteen  to  eighteen  years'  purchase ;  the 
same  may  now  be  sold  for  thirty. 

You  owe  this  to  America.  This  is  the  price  America  pays  for 
her  protection.  And  shall  a  miserable  financier  come  with  a  boast, 
that  he  can  fetch  a  peppercorn  into  the  exchequer  by  the  loss  of 
millions  to  the  nation  ?  I  dare  not  say  how  much  higher  these  prof- 
its may  be  augmented.  Omitting  the  immense  increase  of  people 
by  natural  population  in  the  northern  colonies,  and  the  emigration 
from  every  part  of  Europe,  I  am  convinced  that  the  whole  com- 
mercial system  of  America  may  be  altered  to  advantage.  You  have 
prohibited  where  you  ought  to  have  encouraged ;  and  you  have  en- 
couraged where  you  ought  to  have  prohibited.    Improper  restraints 


PITT,  EARL  OF  CHATHAM  7 

have  been  laid  on  the  continent  in  favor  of  the  islands.  You  have 
but  two  nations  to  trade  with  in  America.    Would  you  had  twenty  ! 

A  great  deal  has  been  said  without  doors  of  the  power,  of  the 
strength,  of  America.  It  is  a  topic  that  ought  to  be  cautiously  med- 
dled with.  In  a  good  cause,  on  a  sound  bottom,  the  force  of  this 
country  can  crush  America  to  atoms.  I  know  the  valor  of  your 
troops ;  I  know  the  skill  of  your  officers.  There  is  not  a  company 
of  foot  that  has  served  in  America,  out  of  which  you  may  not  pick 
a  man  of  sufficient  knowledge  and  experience  to  make  a  governor 
of  a  colony  there.  But,  on  this  ground,  —  on  the  Stamp  Act,  — 
when  so  many  here  will  think  it  a  crying  injustice,  I  am  one  who 
will  lift  up  my  hands  against  it. 

In  such  a  cause  even  your  success  would  be  hazardous.  America, 
if  she  fell,  would  fall  like  a  strong  man.  She  would  embrace  the 
pillars  of  the  State,  and  pull  down  the  constitution  along  with  her. 
Is  this  your  boasted  peace  ?  —  to  sheathe  the  sword,  not  in  its  scab- 
bard, but  in  the  bowels  of  your  countrymen  ?  Will  you  quarrel  with 
yourselves  now  that  the  whole  House  of  Bourbon  is  united  against 
you  ?  —  while  France  disturbs  your  fisheries  in  Newfoundland,  and 
withholds  from  your  subjects  in  Canada  their  property  stipulated 
by  treaty?  while  the  ransom  for  the  Manillas  is  denied  by  Spain, 
and  its  gallant  conqueror  basely  traduced  into  a  mean  plunderer, 
—  a  gentleman  whose  noble  and  generous  spirit  would  do  honor 
to  the  proudest  grandee  of  the  country .? 

The  Americans  have  not  acted  in  all  things  with  prudence  and 
temper.  The  Americans  have  been  wronged.  They  have  been 
driven  to  madness  by  injustice.  Will  you  punish  them  for  the  mad- 
ness which  you  have  occasioned  ?  Rather  let  prudence  and  temper 
come  first  from  this  side.  I  will  undertake  for  America  that  she 
will  follow  the  example.  —  Upon  the  whole,  I  will  beg  leave  to  tell 
the  House  what  is  really  my  opinion.  It  is,  that  the  Stamp  Act  be 
repealed^  absolutely^  totally^  aftd  immediately. 


8  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

THE  ATTEMPT  TO  SUBJUGATE  AMERICA 

This  speech  was  deUvered  in  the  House  of  Lords,  November  i8,  1777. 
The  report  of  it  was  afterwards  carefully  corrected  by  Chatham  himself. 
It  is  considered  the  greatest  of  his  orations. 

I.    AMERICA  INVINCIBLE 

I  rise,  my  lords,  to  declare  my  sentiments  on  this  most  solemn 
and  serious  subject.  It  has  imposed  a  load  upon  my  mind,  which, 
I  fear,  nothing  can  remove ;  but  which  impels  me  to  endeavor  its 
alleviation,  by  a  free  and  unreserved  communication  of  my  senti- 
ments. I  will  not  join  in  congratulation  on  misfortune  and  disgrace, 
I  cannot  concur  in  a  blind  and  servile  address,  which  approves  and 
endeavors  to  sanctify  the  monstrous  measures  which  have  heaped 
disgrace  and  misfortune  upon  us.  This,  my  lords,  is  a  perilous  and 
tremendous  moment !  It  is  not  a  time  for  adulation.  The  smooth- 
ness of  flattery  cannot  now  avail,  cannot  save  us  in  this  rugged  and 
awful  crisis.  It  is  now  necessary  to  instruct  the  throne  in  the  lan- 
guage of  truth.  We  must  dispel  the  delusion  and  the  darkness 
which  envelop  it ;  and  display,  in  its  full  danger  and  true  colors, 
the  ruin  that  is  brought  to  our  doors. 

My  lords,  this  ruinous  and  ignominious  situation  where  we  can- 
not act  with  success,  nor  suffer  with  honor,  calls  upon  us  to  remon- 
strate in  the  strongest  and  loudest  language  of  truth,  to  rescue  the 
ear  of  majesty  from  the  delusions  which  surround  it.  The  desperate 
state  of  our  arms  abroad  is  in  part  known ;  no  man  thinks  more 
highly  of  them  than  I  do.  I  love  and  honor  the  English  troops.  I 
know  their  virtues  and  their  valor.  I  know  they  can  achieve  any- 
thing except  impossibilities  ;  and  I  know  that  the  conquest  of  Eng- 
lish America  is  an  impossibility.  You  cannot,  I  venture  to  say  it, 
you  cannot  conquer  America.  Your  armies  in  the  last  war  effected 
everything  that  could  be  effected  ;  and  what  was  it  ?  It  cost  a  nu- 
merous army,  under  the  command  of  a  most  able  general,  now 
a  noble  lord  in  the  House,  a  long  and  laborious  campaign,  to  expel 
five  thousand  Frenchmen  from  French  America.    My  lords,  you 


PITT,  EARL  OF  CHATHAM  9 

cannot  conquer  America.  What  is  your  present  situation  there  ? 
We  do  not  know  the  worst,  but  we  know  that  in  three  campaigns 
we  have  done  nothing  and  suffered  much.  Besides  the  sufferings, 
perhaps  total  loss,  of  the  northern  force,  the  best-appointed  army 
that  ever  took  the  field,  commanded  by  Sir  William  Howe,  has  re- 
tired from  the  American  lines.  He  was  obliged  to  relinquish  his 
attempt,  and  with  great  delay  and  danger,  to  adopt  a  new  and  dis- 
tant plan  of  operations.  We  shall  soon  know,  and  in  any  event  have 
reason  to  lament,  what  may  have  happened  since.  As  to  conquest, 
therefore,  my  lords,  I  repeat,  it  is  impossible.  You  may  swell  every 
expense  and  every  effort  still  more  extravagantly ;  pile  and  accumu- 
late every  assistance  you  can  buy  or  borrow  ;  traffic  and  barter  with 
every  pitiful  German  prince  that  sells  and  sends  his  subjects  to  the 
shambles  of  a  foreign  prince  ;  your  efforts  are  forever  vain  and  im- 
potent ;  doubly  so  from  this  mercenary  aid  on  which  you  rely.  For 
it  irritates,  to  an  incurable  resentment,  the  minds  of  your  enemies 
—  to  overrun  them  with  the  mercenary  sons  of  rapine  and  plunder ; 
devoting  them  and  their  possessions  to  the  rapacity  of  hireling  cru- 
elty !  If  I  were  an  American, as  I  am  an  Englishman,  while  a  for- 
eign troop  was  landed  in  my  country,  I  never  would  lay  down  my 
arms  —  never  —  never  —  never ! 

n.    RECONCILIATION 

The  address  referred  to  in  the  first  line  of  the  following  extract  is  the 
Address  to  the  Throne  proposed  by  the  House  of  Lords. 

The  independent  views  of  America  have  been  stated  and 
asserted  as  the  foundation  of  this  address.  My  lords,  no  man 
wishes  for  the  due  dependence  of  America  on  this  country  more 
than  I  do.  To  preserve  it,  and  not  confirm  that  state  of  independ- 
ence into  which  your  measures  hitherto  have  driven  them,  is  the 
object  which  we  ought  to  unite  in  attaining.  The  Americans,  con- 
tending for  their  rights  against  arbitrary  exactions,  I  love  and 
admire.  It  is  the  struggle  of  free  and  virtuous  patriots ;  but  con- 
tending for  independency  and  total  disconnection  from  England, 


lO  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

as  an  Englishman,  I  cannot  wish  them  success.  For,  in  a  due 
constitutional  dependency,  including  the  ancient  supremacy  of  this 
country  in  regulating  their  commerce  and  navigation,  consists  the 
mutual  happiness  and  prosperity  both  of  England  and  America. 
She  derived  assistance  and  protection  from  us ;  and  we  reaped 
from  her  the  most  important  advantages.  She  was,  indeed,  the 
fountain  of  our  wealth,  the  nerve  of  our  strength,  the  nursery  and 
basis  of  our  naval  power.  It  is  our  duty,  therefore,  my  lords,  if  we 
wish  to  save  our  country,  most  seriously  to  endeavor  the  recovery 
of  these  most  beneficial  subjects;  and  in  this  perilous  crisis,  per- 
haps the  present  moment  may  be  the  only  one  in  which  we  can 
hope  for  success.  Let  us  wisely  take  advantage  of  every  possible 
moment  of  reconciliation.  I  would  participate  to  them  every  en- 
joyment and  freedom  which  the  colonizing  subjects  of  a  free  State 
can  possess,  or  wish  to  possess  ;  and  I  do  not  see  why  they  should 
not  enjoy  every  fundamental  right  in  their  property,  and  every 
original  substantial  liberty,  which  Devonshire  or  Surrey,  or  the 
county  I  live  in,  or  any  other  county  in  England,  can  claim ;  re- 
serving always,  as  the  sacred  right  of  the  niother  country,  the  due 
constitutional  dependency  of  the  colonies.  The  inherent  supremacy 
of  the  State  in  regulating  and  protecting  the  navigation  and  com- 
merce of  all  her  subjects  is  necessary  for  the  mutual  benefit  and 
preservation  of  every  part,  to  constitute  and  preserve  the  prosperous 
arrangement  of  the  whole  empire. 

You  cannot  conciliate  America  by  your  present  measures.  You 
cannot  subdue  her  by  your  present,  or  by  any  measures.  What, 
then,  can  you  do  ?  You  cannot  conquer ;  you  cannot  gain  ;  but 
you  can  address ;  you  can  lull  the  fears  and  anxieties  of  the  mo- 
ment into  an  ignorance  of  the  danger  that  should  produce  them. 
But,  my  lords,  the  time  demands  the  language  of  truth.  We  must 
not  now  apply_the  flattering  unction  of  servile  compliance  or  blind 
complaisance.  In  a  just  and  necessary  war  to  maintain  the  rights 
or  honor  of  my  country,  I  would  strip  the  shirt  from  my  back  to 
support  it.  But  in  such  a  war  as  this,  unjust  in  its  principle,  im- 
practicable in  its  means,  and  ruinous  in  its  consequences,  I  would 


PITT,  EARL  OF  CHATHAM  II 

not  contribute  a  single  effort,  nor  a  single  shilling.  I  do  not  call 
for  vengeance  on  the  heads  of  those  who  have  been  guilty ;  I  only 
recommend  to  them  to  make  their  retreat.  Let  them  walk  off; 
and  let  them  make  haste,  or  they  may  be  assured  that  speedy  and 
condign  punishment  will  overtake  them. 

My  lords,  I  have  submitted  to  you,  with  the  freedom  and  truth 
which  I  think  my  duty,  my  sentiments  on  your  present  awful  sit- 
uation. I  have  laid  before  you  the  ruin  of  your  power,  the  dis- 
grace of  your  reputation,  the  pollution  of  your  discipline,  and 
contamination  of  your  morals,  the  complication  of  calamities,  for- 
eign and  domestic,  that  overwhelm  your  sinking  country.  Your 
dearest  interests,  your  own  liberties,  the  constitution  itself,  totters 
to  the  foundation.  All  this  disgraceful  danger,  this  multitude  of 
misery,  is  the  monstrous  offspring  of  this  unnatural  war.  We  have 
been  deceived  and  deluded  too  long.  Let  us  now  stop  short.  This 
is  the  crisis  —  the  only  crisis  of  time  and  situation,  to  give  us  a 
possibility  of  escape  from  the  fatal  effects  of  our  delusions.  But 
if,  in  an  obstinate  and  infatuated  perseverance  in  folly,  we  slav- 
ishly echo  the  peremptory  words  this  day  presented  to  us,  noth- 
ing can  save  this  devoted  country  from  complete  and  final  ruin. 
We  madly  rush  into  multiplied  miseries  and  '"  confusion  worse 
confounded." 

Is  it  possible,  can  it  be  believed,  that  ministers  are  yet  blind  to 
this  impending  destruction .?  I  did  hope  that  instead  of  this  false 
and  empty  vanity,  this  overweening  pride,  engendering  high  con- 
ceits and  presumptuous  imaginations,  that  ministers  would  have 
humbled  themselves  in  their  errors,  would  have  confessed  and  re- 
tracted them,  and  by  an  active,  though  a  late  repentance,  have  en- 
deavored to  redeem  them.  But,  my  lords,  since  they  had  neither 
sagacity  to  foresee,  nor  justice  nor  humanity  to  shun,  these  oppres- 
sive calamities ;  since  not  even  severe  experience  can  make  them 
feel,  nor  the  imminent  ruin  of  their  country  awaken  them  from 
their  stupefaction,  the  guardian  care  of  Parliament  must  interpose. 
I  shall,  therefore,  my  lords,  propose  to  you  an  amendment  to  the 
address  of  his  Majesty,  to  recommend  an  immediate  cessation  of 


12  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

hostilities  and  the  commencement  of  a  treaty  to  restore  peace  and 
liberty  to  America,  strength  and  happiness  to  England,  security 
and  permanent  prosperity  to  both  countries. 


III.    SAVAGE  WARFARE 

Lord  George  Germaine  of  the  ministry  had  authorized  the  employment 
of  the  Indians  in  America  to  fight  the  colonists.  This  was  supported  by 
Lord  Suffolk,  who  declared  that  the  English  had  a  right  to  employ  the 
"  means  that  God  and  nature  put  into  our  hands." 

But,  my  lords,  who  is  the  man  that  has  dared  to  authorize  and 
associate  to  our  arms  the  tomahawk  and  scalping  knife  of  the 
savage  ?  To  call  into  civilized  alliance  the  wild  and  inhuman  sav- 
age of  the  woods ;  to  delegate  to  the  merciless  Indian  the  defense 
of  disputed  rights,  and  to  wage  the  horrors  of  his  barbarous  war 
against  our  brethren?  My  lords,  these  enormities  cry  aloud  for 
redress  and  punishment.  Unless  thoroughly  done  away,  it  will  be 
a  stain  on  the  national  character.  It  is  a  violation  of  the  consti- 
tution. I  believe  it  is  against  law.  It  is  not  the  least  of  our  national 
misfortunes,  that  the  strength  and  character  of  our  army  are  thus 
impaired.  Infected  with  the  mercenary  spirit  of  robbery  and  rapine  ; 
familiarized  to  the  horrid  scenes  of  savage  cruelty,  it  can  no  longer 
boast  of  the  noble  and  generous  principles  which  dignify  a  soldier ; 
no  longer  sympathize  with  the  dignity  of  the  royal  banner,  nor  feel 
the  pride,  pomp,  and  circumstance  of  glorious  war,  "  that  make 
ambition  virtue !  "  What  makes  ambition  virtue  ?  —  the  sense  of 
honor.  But  is  the  sense  of  honor  consistent  with  a  spirit  of  plunder 
or  the  practice  of  murder?  Can  it  flow  from  mercenary  motives, 
or  can  it  prompt  to  cruel  deeds  ?  Besides  these  murderers  and 
plunderers,  let  me  ask  our  ministers,  what  other  allies  have  they 
'acquired  ?  What  other  powers  have  they  associated  to  their  cause  ? 
Have  they  entered  into  alliance  with  the  king  of  the  gypsies? 
Nothing,  my  lords,  is  too  low  or  too  ludicrous  to  be  consistent 
with  their  counsels. 

I  am  astonished  !  shocked !  to  hear  such  principles  confessed  — 


PITT,  EARL  OF  CHATHAM  1 3 

to  hear  them  avowed  in  this  House,  or  in  this  country ;  principles 
equally  unconstitutional,  inhuman,  and  unchristian  ! 

My  lords,  I  did  not  intend  to  have  encroached  again  upon  your 
attention ;  but  I  cannot  repress  my  indignation.  I  feel  myself 
impelled  by  every  duty.  My  lords,  we  are  called  upon  as  members 
of  this  House,  as  men,  as  Christian  men,  to  protest  against  such 
notions  standing  near  the  throne,  polluting  the  ear  of  majesty. 
"  That  God  and  nature  put  into  our  hand ! "  I  know  not  what 
ideas  that  lord  may  entertain  of  God  and  nature ;  but  I  know  that 
such  abominable  principles  are  equally  abhorrent  to  religion  and 
humanity.  What !  to  attribute  the  sacred  sanction  of  God  and 
nature  to  the  massacres  of  the  Indian  scalping  knife  —  to  the 
cannibal  savage  torturing,  murdering,  roasting,  and  eating  ;  literally, 
my  lords,  eating  the  mangled  victims  of  his  barbarous  battles ! 
(Such  horrible  notions  shock  every  precept  of  religion,  divine  or 
natural,  and  every  generous  feeling  of  humanity.  And,  my  lords, 
they  shock  every  sentiment  of  honor ;  they  shock  me  as  a  lover  of 
honorable  war  and  a  detester  of  murderous  barbarity. 

These  abominable  principles,  and  this  more  abominable  avowal 
of  them,  demand  the  most  decisive  indignation.  I  call  upon  that 
right  reverend  bench,  those  holy  ministers  of  the  Gospel  and  pious 
pastors  of  our  church ;  I  conjure  them  to  join  in  the  holy  work, 
and  vindicate  the  religion  of  their  Godji  appeal  to  the  wisdom 
and  the  law  of  this  learned  bench,  to  defend  and  support  the 
justice  of  their  country.  I  call  upon  the  bishops  to  interpose  the 
unsullied  sanctity  of  their  lawn;  upon  the  learned  judges  to  inter- 
pose the  purity  of  their  ermine,  to  save  us  from  this  pollution.  I 
call  upon  the  honor  of  your  lordships  to  reverence  the  dignity  of 
your  ancestors  and  to  maintain  your  own.  I  call  upon  the  spirit  of 
humanity  of  my  country  to  vindicate  the  national  character.  I  in- 
voke the  genius  of  the  constitution.  From  the  tapestry  that  adorns 
these  walls,  the  immortal  ancestor  of  this  noble  lord  frowns  with 
indignation  at  the  disgrace  of  his  country.  In  vain  he  led  your 
victorious  fleets  against  the  boasted  Armada  of  Spain ;  in  vain  he 
defended  and  established  the  honor,  the  liberties,  the  religion,  the 


14  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

Protestant  religion,  of  this  country,  against  the  arbitrary  cruelties 
of  Popery  and  the  Inquisition,  if  these  more  than  popish  cruelties 
and  inquisitorial  practices  are  let  loose  among  us  ;  to  turn  forth  into 
our  settlements,  among  our  ancient  connections,  friends,  and  rela- 
tions, the  merciless  cannibal,  thirsting  for  the  blood  of  man,  woman, 
and  child !  to  send  forth  the  infidel  savage  —  against  whom?  against 
your  Protestant  brethren  to  lay  waste  their  country,  to  desolate 
their  dwellings  and  extirpate  their  race  and  name,  with  these 
horrible  hellhounds  of  savage  war!  hellhounds,  I  say,  of  savage 
war.  Spain  armed  herself  with  bloodhounds  to  extirpate  the 
wretched  natives  of  America ;  and  we  improve  on  the  inhuman 
example  even  of  Spanish  cruelty ;  we  turn  loose  these  savage  hell- 
hounds against  our  brethren  and  countrymen  in  America,  of  the 
same  language,  laws,  liberties,  and  religion ;  endeared  to  us  by 
every  tie  that  should  sanctify  humanity. 

My  lords,  this  awful  subject,  so  important  to  our  honor,  consti- 
tution, and  our  religion,  demands  the  most  solemn  and  effectual 
inquiry.  And  I  again  call  upon  your  lordships,  and  the  united 
powers  of  the  State,  to  examine  it  thoroughly  and  decisively  and 
to  stamp  upon  it  an  indelible  stigma  of  the  public  abhorrence. 
And  I  again  implore  those  holy  prelates  of  our  religion  to  do  away 
these  iniquities  from  among  us.  Let  them  perform  a  lustration; 
let  them  purify  this  House  and  this  country  from  this  sin.  My 
lords,  I  am  old  and  weak,  and  at  present  unable  to  say  more ;  but 
my  feelings  and  indignation  were  too  strong  to  have  said  less.  I 
could  not  have  slept  this  night  in  my  bed,  nor  reposed  my  head  on 
my  pillow,  without  giving  this  vent  to  my  eternal  abhorrence  of 
such  preposterous  and  enormous  principles. 


PITT,  EARL  OF  CHATHAM  1 5 

THE  ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION 

A  speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Lords  in  reply  to  Lord  Mansfield, 
January  9,  1770.  The  question  was  as  to  the  right  of  Mr.  Wilkes  to  repre- 
sent the  county  of  Middlesex  in  Parliament. 

My  lords,  I  must  beg  the  indulgence  of  the  House.  I  do  not 
pretend  to  be  qualified  to  follow  that  learned  lord  minutely  through 
the  whole  of  his  argument.  No  man  is  better  acquainted  with  his 
abilities  and  learning,  nor  has  a  greater  respect  for  them  than  I  have. 
I  have  had  the  pleasure  of  sitting  with  him  in  the  other  House,  and 
always  listened  to  him  with  attention.  I  have  not  now  lost  a  word 
of  what  he  said,  nor  did  I  ever.  Upon  the  present  question  I  meet 
him  without  fear.  The  evidence  which  truth  carries  with  it  is  supe- 
rior to  all  argument ;  it  neither  wants  the  support  nor  dreads  the  op- 
position of  the  greatest  abilities.  If  there  be  a  single  word  in  the 
amendment  to  justify  the  interpretation  which  the  noble  lord  has 
been  pleased  to  give  it,  I  am  ready  to  renounce  the  whole.  Let  it 
be  read,  my  lords ;  let  it  speak  for  itself.  In  what  instance  does  it 
interfere  with  the  privileges  of  the  House  of  Commons  ?  In  what 
respect  does  it  question  their  jurisdiction,  or  suppose  an  authority 
in  this  House  to  arraign  the  justice  of  their  sentence  ? 

The  Constitution  of  this  country  has  been  openly  evaded  in  fact ; 
and  I  have  heard  with  horror,  and  astonishment,  that  very  invasion 
defended  upon  principle.  What  is  this  mysterious  power,  undefined 
by  law,  unknown  to  the  subject,  which  we  must  not  approach  with- 
out awe,  nor  speak  of  without  reverence  —  which  no  man  may  ques- 
tion, and  to  which  all  men  must  submit  ?  My  lords,  I  thought  the 
slavish  doctrine  of  passive  obedience  had  long  since  exploded  ;  and, 
when  our  kings  were  obliged  to  confess  that  their  title  to  the  Crown, 
and  the  rule  of  their  government,  had  no  other  foundation  than  the 
known  laws  of  the  land,  I  never  expected  to  hear  a  divine  right,  or  a 
divine  infallibility,  attributed  to  any  other  branch  of  the  Legislature. 
My  lords,  I  beg  to  be  understood.  No  man  respects  the  House  of 
Commons  more  than  I  do,  or  would  contend  more  strenuously  than 
I  would  to  preserve  to  them  their  just  and  legal  authority.    Within 


l6  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

the  bounds  prescribed  by  the  constitution,  that  authority  is  neces- 
sary to  the  well-being  of  the  people.  Beyond  that  line,  every  exer- 
tion of  power  is  arbitrary,  is  illegal;  it  threatens  tyranny  to  the 
people,  and  destruction  to  the  State.  Power  without  right  is  the 
most  odious  and  detestable  object  that  can  be  offered  to  the  human 
imagination.  It  is  not  only  pernicious  to  those  who  are  subject  to  it, 
but  tends  to  its  own  destruction.  My  lords,  1  acknowledge  the  just 
power,  and  reverence  the  constitution  of  the  House  of  Commons. 
It  is  for  their  own  sake  that  I  would  prevent  their  assuming  a  power 
which  the  constitution  has  denied  them,  lest,  by  grasping  at  an  au- 
thority they  have  no  right  to,  they  should  forfeit  that  which  they 
legally  possess.  My  lords,  I  affirm  that  they  have  betrayed  their 
constituents  and  violated  the  constitution.  Under  pretense  of  de- 
claring the  law,  they  have  made  a  law,  and  united  in  the  same  per- 
sons the  office  of  legislator  and  judge  ! 

The  noble  lord  assures  us  that  he  knows  not  in  what  code  the 
law  of  Parliament  is  to  be  found ;  that  the  House  of  Commons, 
when  they  act  as  judges,  have  no  law  to  direct  them  but  their  own 
wisdom ;  that  their  decision  is  law ;  and  if  they  determine  wrong, 
the  subject  has  no  appeal  but  to  heaven.  What  then,  my  lords? 
Are  all  the  generous  efforts  of  our  ancestors,  are  all  those  glorious 
contentions  by  which  they  meant  to  secure  to  themselves,  and  to 
transmit  to  their  posterity,  a  known  law,  a  certain  rule  of  living, 
reduced  to  this  conclusion,  that,  instead  of  the  arbitrary  power  of 
a  king,  we  must  submit  to  the  arbitrary  power  of  a  House  of  Com- 
mons ?  If  this  be  true,  what  benefit  do  we  derive  from  the  ex- 
change ?  Tyranny,  my  lords,  is  detestable  in  every  shape,  but  in 
none  so  formidable  as  when  it  is  assumed  and  exercised  by  a  num- 
ber of  tyrants.  But,  my  lords,  this  is  not  the  fact ;  this  is  not  the 
Constitution.  We  have  a  law  of  Parliament.  We  have  a  code  in 
which  every  honest  man  may  find  it.  We  have  Magna  Charta.  We 
have  the  Statute  Book  and  the  Bill  of  Rights. 

My  lords,  this  is  not  a  vague  or  loose  expression.  We  all  know 
what  the  constitution  is.  We  all  know  that  the  first  principle  of  it 
is  that  the  subject  shall  not  be  governed  by  the  arbitrium  of  any 


PITT,  EARL  OF  CHATHAM  1/ 

one  man  or  body  of  men  (less  than  the  whole  Legislature),  but 
by  certain  laws,  to  which  he  has  virtually  given  his  consent,  which 
are  open  to  him  to  examine,  which  are  not  beyond  his  ability  to 
understand. 

Let  us  not,  then,  degenerate  from  the  glorious  example  of  our 
ancestors.  Those  iron  barons  (for  so  I  may  call  them  when  com- 
pared with  the  silken  barons  of  modem  days)  were  the  guardians 
of  the  people ;  yet  their  virtues,  my  lords,  were  never  engaged  in  a 
question  of  such  importance  as  the  present.  A  breach  has  been 
made  in  the  constitution  —  the  battlements  are  dismantled  —  the 
citadel  is  open  to  the  first  invader  —  the  walls  totter  —  the  consti- 
tution is  not  tenable.  What  remains,  then,  but  for  us  to  stand  fore- 
most in  the  breach,  and  repair  it,  or  perish  in  it  ? 

My  lords,  this  is  not  merely  the  cold  opinion  of  my  understand- 
ing, but  the  glowing  expression  of  what  I  feel.  It  is  my  heart  that 
speaks.  I  know  I  speak  warmly,  my  lords,  but  this  warmth  shall 
neither  betray  my  argument  nor  my  temper.  The  kingdom  is  in  a 
flame.  As  mediators  between  a  king  and  people,  is  it  not  our  duty 
to  represent  to  him  the  true  condition  and  temper  of  his  Subjects .? 
It  is  a  duty  which  no  particular  respects  should  hinder  us  from  per- 
forming ;  and  whenever  his  Majesty  shall  demand  our  advice,  it  will 
then  be  our  duty  to  inquire  more  minutely  into  the  cause  of  the 
present  discontents.  Whenever  that  inquiry  shall  come  on,  I  pledge 
myself  to  the  House  to  prove  that,  since  the  first  institution  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  not  a  single  precedent  can  be  produced  to 
justify  their  late  proceedings. 

There  is  one  ambition  at  least,  which  I  ever  will  acknowledge, 
which  I  will  not  renounce  but  with  my  life.  It  is  the  ambition  of 
delivering  to  my  posterity  those  rights  of  freedom  which  I  have 
received  from  my  ancestors.  I  am  not  now  pleading  the  cause  of 
the  individual,  but  of  every  freeholder  of  England. 


EDMUND   BURKE 


Edmund  Burke  (1730- 1797)  was  a  man  of  eminent 
scholarship.  His  preparation  for  college  was  made  at  a 
Quaker   academy  near    Dublin.     At   the   age   of   fourteen 

he  entered  Trinity  College, 
Dublin,  where  he  remained 
six  years,  receiving  both  the 
bachelor's  and  the  master's 
degrees.  He  was  especially 
fond  of  the  classics,  and 
committed  to  memory  large 
parts  of  Virgil  and  Horace. 
Of  the  English  classics  he 
was  most  fond  of  Milton 
and  Shakespeare.  He  was 
also  a  constant  reader  of 
the  Bible,  having  gained  his 
taste  for  its  pages  through 
the  director  of  the  Quaker 
school,  "under  whose  eye," 
he  says,  "  I  read  the  Bible 
morning,  noon,  and  night ;  and  have  ever  since  been  a 
happier  and  better  man  for  such  reading."  This  accounts 
in  great  measure  for  the  imagery  and  illustration,  almost 
oriental  in  character,  which  pervade  his  discourses. 

His  later  studies  in  literature  were  devoted  mainly  to 
poetry,  oratory,  history,  and  philosophy.  Milton  was  his  de- 
light because  of  his  '*  richness  of  language,  boundless  learn- 
ing, and  scriptural  grandeur  of  conception."    Bacon  was  his 

18 


EDMUND  BURKE  19 

favorite  philosopher,  and  his  knowledge  of  other  subjects  was 
widely  extended.  Possessed  of  a  genius  for  application,  a 
thirst  for  learning,  and  a  prodigious  memory,  his  knowledge 
was  well-nigh  universal,  for  he  became  the  best  scholar  of 
his  day. 

After  leaving  college  he  devoted  himself  for  a  time  to  the 
study  of  law.  This  proved  distasteful  to  him  and  he  gave  it 
up  for  a  literary  career.  Five  years  he  spent  in  travel  and  in 
the  society  of  eminent  men. 

In  order  to  gain  vocabulary  and  expressive  diction  he  wrote 
regularly.  Even  during  his  college  course  he  contributed  to 
periodicals  and  translated  a  part  of  one  of  Virgil's  poems 
into  verse. 

Demosthenes  was  his  favorite  orator,  though  his  style  in 
after  years  resembled  more  nearly  that  of  Cicero.  As  a  con- 
versationist he  had  no  superior.  Samuel  Johnson,  noted  for 
his  gifts  in  conversation,  says  of  Burke  :  ''His  stream  of 
talk  was  perpetual,  and  he  does  not  talk  with  any  desire  for 
distinction,  but  because  his  mind  is  full.  Take  him  up  where 
you  please,  he  is  ready  to  meet  you."  This  gift  of  language 
and  expression  was  his  greatest  asset  when  he  came  to  make 
public  addresses. 

Physically  Burke  was  not  robust.  He  was  ungainly,  tall, 
awkward,  and  of  a  severe  countenance.  Personally  he  was  not 
prepossessing.  His  gestures  lacked  ease,  his  body  was  not 
well  poised.  He  wore  glasses,  and  it  was  not  easy  for  him  to 
hold  with  his  look  the  interest  and  attention  of  an  audience. 

His  style  was  less  simple  and  direct  than  that  of  any  of  his 
great  contemporaries.  Not  content  with  plain  unadorned  argu- 
ment, he  elaborated  with  figures  of  speech  and  excursions  of 
fancy  and  imagery  which  tired  the  mind  by  its  minuteness  and 
subtlety.  It  is  said  that  there  are  more  metaphors  in  a  page 
of  his  speeches  than  in  all  of  Webster's.    While  he  lacked 


20  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

the  simple,  business-like,  compressed  argument  of  Webster 
or  Fox,  yet  "his  whole  composition,"  says  Rogers,  "glitters 
and  sparkles  with  a  rich  profusion  of  moral  reflection."  There 
is  no  greater  master  of  metaphor,  and  notwithstanding  the 
copiousness  and  magnificence  of  his  imagination  and  expres- 
sion, the  great  merit  of  his  discourse  lies  in  the  fact  that  it 
is  unified  in  design  and  arrangement  and  is  saturated  with 
thought.  Goodrich  declares  that  "  no  one  ever  poured  forth 
such  a  flood  of  thought ;  so  many  original  combinations  of 
inventive  genius  ;  so  m.uch  knowledge  of  men  and  the  work- 
ing of  political  systems  ;  so  many  just  remarks  on  the  relation 
of  government  to  the  manners,  the  spirit,  and  even  the  prej- 
udice of  a  people ;  so  many  wise  maxims,  so  many  beautiful 
effusions  of  lofty  and  generous  sentiment ;  such  exuberant 
stories  of  illustration,  ornament,  and  apt  allusion ;  all  inter- 
mingled with  the  liveliest  sallies  of  wit  or  the  boldest  flights 
of  a  sublime  imagination." 

Burke  was  not  remarkable  for  his  powers  of  delivery.  His 
voice  was  light  and  high-pitched,  harsh  during  the  calmer 
portions  of  his  speeches  and  hoarse  in  the  more  earnest 
parts,  rising  often  to  a  shriek.  He  spoke  rapidly  and  vehe- 
mently and  there  was  a  very  noticeable  brogue  in  his  speak- 
ing. Earnestness  was  the  most  striking  and  most  effective 
element  in  his  oratory. 

The  influence  of  his  speech  was  greater  when  read  than 
when  heard.  Mathews  says  on  this  point,  that  "  instead  of 
seizing  the  strong  points  in  a  case  by  throwing  away  inter- 
mediate thoughts  and  striking  at  the  heart  of  his  theme,  he 
stopped  to  philosophize  and  to  instruct  his  hearers,"  often 
becoming  tedious  to  members  of  the  House.    In  the  words 

of  Goldsmith,  he"  r,  . 

went  on  refining 

And  thought  of  convincing 

While  they  thought  of  dining. 


EDMUND  BURKE  21 

On  this  account  he  was  called  the  "  dinner  bell  of  the  House 
of  Commons,"  for  when  he  rose  to  speak  many  of  the  mem- 
bers left  their  seats.  Even  so  distinguished  a  man  as  Lord 
Erskine  had  to  confess  that  he  crept  out  on  all  fours  behind 
the  benches  during  Burke's  speech  on  ''  Conciliation  with 
America";  a  speech  which,  after  having  read  and  reread  it, 
he  declared  to  be  the  most  remarkable  discourse  ever  made  in 
Commons.  It  was  Burke's  sustained  luxuriance  and  magnif- 
icence which  drove  the  people  away.  In  fact,  many  of  his 
speeches  were  elaborate  political  lectures.  "The  exuberance 
of  his  fancy  was  prejudicial  to  him.  Men  are  apt  to  doubt 
the  solidity  of  a  structure  that  is  covered  with  flowers."  Fox 
says  on  this  point :  "It  injures  his  reputation  ;  it  casts  a  veil 
over  his  wisdom.  Reduce  his  language,  withdraw  his  images, 
and  you  will  find  that  he  is  more  wise  than  eloquent." 

While  he  was  reverenced  as  a  prophet  during  the  earlier 
years  of  his  parliamentary  career,  he  lost  influence  and  friends 
when  he  took  so  bold  a  stand  against  the  French  Revolution. 
His  enemies  began  a  systematic  policy  of  insult  to  silence 
him,  by  coughing,  laughing,  and  sarcastic  cheering.  Once 
when  he  rose  to  speak  with  a  bundle  of  papers  in  his  hand,  a 
member  sprang  to  his  feet  and  said,  "  I  hope  the  honorable 
gentleman  does  not  mean  to  read  that  large  bundle  of  papers 
and  bore  us  with  a  long  speech."  This  so  angered  the 
irritable  Burke  that  he  rushed  out  of  the  House. 

What  shall  be  said  of  the  place  in  history  of  this  many- 
sided  man  .?  Intellectually  he  was  one  of  the  giants  of  his- 
tory. Rufus  Choate  calls  Burke  "the  fourth  Englishman," 
ranking  him  with  Shakespeare,  Bacon,  and  Milton.  He  was 
a  political  prophet  "whose  predictions,"  says  Lord  Brougham, 
"  have  been  more  than  fulfilled."  In  him  were  combined  the 
poet  and  the  philosopher,  and  he  was  more  wise  as  a  philos- 
opher than  as  a  legislator.    Strong  in  his  convictions,  he  had 


22  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

the  courage  to  maintain  them.  He  was  the  first  to  advocate 
the  independence  of  parHamentary  representatives.  It  was  the 
open  expression  of  this  independence  in  his  Bristol  speech 
which  lost  him  his  seat  from  that  borough.  In  no  sense  can 
he  be  said  to  be  a  partisan.  Though  all  England  opposed 
his  stand  on  the  French  Revolution,  he  maintained  his  posi- 
tion and  wrote  his  far-famed  "  Reflections  on  the  French 
Revolution." 

As  an  orator  he  is  given  a  place  among  the  seven  great 
orators  of  the  world.  This  rank  is  not  so  much  on  account 
of  his  ability  to  influence  the  immediate  audience  as  because 
of  the  tremendous  effect  of  his  speeches  on  the  public  mind 
through  the  medium  of  the  press.  He  is  called  the  "  philo- 
sophic orator  "  of  the  English  language.  While  he  was  in- 
ferior to  Fox  and  Chatham  in  his  sway  over  an  audience, 
yet,  according  to  Goodrich,  "  he  has  been  surpassed  by  no 
one  in  the  richness  and  splendor  of  his  eloquence  ;  and  has 
left  us  something  greater  and  better  than  all  eloquence  in  his 
countless  lessons  of  moral  and  civil  wisdom." 

Of  several  hundred  of  his  speeches  only  six  have  been  pre- 
served and  these  were  written  out  by  himself  for  publication. 

His  first  published  speech  was  in  1774  on  "'American 
Taxation."  The  next  was  in  1775  on  "Conciliation  with 
America,"  in  which  he  declared  that  "  taxation  and  represen- 
tation are  inseparably  conjoined."  The  third  was  his  speech 
at  Bristol  in  1 780,  in  which  he  advocated  parliamentary  inde- 
pendence of  representatives ;  the  fourth,  his  speech  on  the 
"  East  India  Bill "  ;  fifth,  the  "  Nabob  of  Arcot's  Debts," 
delivered  in  1785,  thought  by  many  to  be  his  greatest  effort ; 
and  sixth,  parts  of  his  two  speeches  in  the  "Trial  of  Hastings," 
characterized  as  "  the  greatest  intellectual  effort  ever  made 
before  Parliament." 


EDMUND  BURKE  23 

CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA 

This  speech  was  delivered  in  the  House  of  Commons,  March  22,  1775, 
in  support  of  measures  looking  toward  a  peaceful  settlement  of  the  troubles 
with  the  American  colonies.  It  was  a  three  hours'  speech,  and  was  called 
by  Mackintosh  "  the  most  faultless  of  Burke's  productions." 

I.    RESTORATION  OF  ORDER 

To  restore  order  and  repose  to  an  Empire  so  great  and  so  dis- 
tracted as  our^is  merely  in  the  attempt  an  undertaking  that 
would  ennoble  the  flights  of  the  highest  genius,  and  obtain  pardon 
for  the  efforts  of  the  meanest  understanding.  Judging  of  what  you 
are  by  what  you  ought  to  be,  I  persuaded  myself  that  you  would 
not  reject  a  reasonable  proposition  because  it  had  nothing  but  its 
reason  to  recommend  it. 

The  proposition  is  peace.  Not  peace  through  the  medium  of 
war ;  not  peace  to  be  hunted  through  the  labyrinth  of  intricate  and 
endless  negotiations ;  not  peace  to  arise  out  of  universal  discord, 
fomented  from  principle  in  all  parts  gf  the  Empire ;  not  peace  to 
depend  on  the  juridical  determination  of  perplexing  questions,  or 
precisely  marking  the  shadowy  boundaries  of  a  complex  govern- 
ment. It  is  simple  peace,  sought  in  its  natural  course  and  its 
ordinary  haunts.  It  is  peace  sought  in  the  spirit  of  peace,  and  laid 
in  principles  purely  pacific.  I  propose,  by  removing  the  ground  of 
the  difference,  and  by  restoring  the  former  unsuspecting  confidence 
of  the  Colonies  in  the  mother  country,  to  give  permanent  satisfac- 
tion to  your  people  ;  and,  far  from  a  scheme  of  ruling  by  discord,  to 
reconcile  th'em  to  each  other  in  the  same  act,  and  by  the  bond  of 
the  very  same  interest,  which  reconciles  them  to  British  government. 

My  idea  is  nothing  more.  Refined  policy  ever  has  been  the 
parent  of  confusion,  and  ever  will  be  so  long  as  the  world  endures. 
Plain  good  intention,  which  is  as  easily  discovered  at  the  first  view 
as  fraud  is  surely  detected  at  last,  is,  let  me  say,  of  no  mean  force 
in  the  government  of  mankind.  Genuine  simplicity  of  heart  is  a 
healing  and  cementing  principle.   My  plan,  therefore,  being  formed 


24  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

upon  the  most  simple  grounds  imaginable,  may  disappoint  some 
people  when  they  hear  it.  It  has  nothing  to  recommend  it  to 
the  pruriency  of  curious  ears.  There  is  nothing  at  all  new  and 
captivating  in  it.  It  has  nothing  of  the  splendor  of  the  project 
which  has  been  lately  laid  upon  your  table  by  the  noble  lord.  It 
does  not  propose  to  fill  your  lobby  with  squabbling  colony  agents, 
who  will  require  the  interposition  of  your  mace  at  every  instant  to 
keep  the  peace  among  them.  It  does  not  institute  a  magnificent 
auction  of  finance,  where  captivated  provinces  come  to  general 
ransom  by  bidding  against  each  other. 

The  capital  leading  questions  on  which  you  must  this  day 
decide,  are  these  two :  First,  whether  you  ought  to  concede ;  and 
secondly,  what  your  concession  ought  to  be. 

On  the  first  of  these  questions  we  have  gained  some  ground. 
But  I  am  sensible  that  a  good  deal  more  is  still  to  be  done.  Indeed, 
sir,  to  enable  us  to  determine  both  on  the  one  and  the  other  of  these 
great  questions  with  a  firm  and  precise  judgment,  I  think  it  may 
be  necessary  to  consider  distinctly  the  true  nature  and  the  peculiar 
circumstances  of  the  object  which  we  have  before  us ;  because, 
whether  we  will  or  not,  we  must  govern  America  according  to  that 
nature  and  to  those  circumstances,  and  not  according  to  our 
imaginations. 

The  first  thing  that  we  have  to  consider  with  regard  to  the 
nature  of  the  object,  is  the  number  of  people  in  the  Colonies.  I 
have  taken  for  some  years  a  good  deal  of  pains  on  that  point. 
I  can  by  no  calculation  justify  myself  in  placing  the  number  below 
two  millions  of  inhabitants  of  our  own  European  blood  and  color, 
besides  at  least  five  hundred  thousand  others,  who  form  no  incon- 
siderable part  of  the  strength  and  opulence  of  the  whole.  While 
we  spend  our  time  in  deliberating  on  the  mode  of  governing  two 
millions,  we  shall  find  we  have  two  millions  more  to  manage.  Your 
children  do  not  grow  faster  from  infancy  to  manhood  than  they 
spread  from  families  to  communities,  and  from  villages  to  nations. 

I  put  this  consideration  of  the  present  and  the  growing  numbers 
in  the  front  of  our  deliberation ;  because,  sir,  this  consideration  will 


EDMUND  BURKE  25 

make  it  evident  to  a  blunter  discernment  than  yours,  that  no 
partial,  narrow,  contracted,  pinched,  occasional  system  will  be  at 
all  suitable  to  such  an  object.  It  will  show  you  that  it  is  not  a 
paltry  excrescence  of  the  State ;  not  a  mean  dependent,  who  may 
be.  neglected  with  little  damage,  and  provoked  with  little  danger. 
It  will  prove  that  some  degree  of  care  and  caution  is  required  in 
the  handling  of  such  an  object ;  it  will  show  that  you  ought  not,  in 
reason,  to  trifle  with  so  large  a  mass  of  the  interests  and  feelings 
of  the  human  race.  You  could  at  no  time  do  so  without  guilt ;  and, 
be  assured,  you  will  not  do  it  long  with  impunity. 

II.    OBJECTIONS  TO  FORCE 

Burke  discusses  at  length  the  trade  between  England  and  the  Colonies. 
He  declares  that  commerce  has  been  greatly  augmented  and  calls  it  the 
"  food  that  has  nourished  every  other  part  of  England  into  its  present  mag- 
nitude."   He  then  speaks  as  follows : 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  cannot  prevail  on  myself  to  hurry  over  this 
great  consideration.  It  is  good  for  us  to  be  here.  We  stand  where 
we  have  an  immense  view  of  what  is,  and  what  is  past.  Clouds, 
indeed,  and  darkness,  rest  upon  the  future.  Let  us,  however,  before 
we  descend  from  this  noble  eminence,  reflect  that  this  growth  of 
our  national  prosperity  has  happened  within  the  short  period  of 
the  life  of  man.  It  has  happened  within  sixty-eight  years.  There 
are  those  alive  whose  memory  might  touch  the  two  extremities. 

I  am  sensible,  sir,  that  all  which  I  have  asserted  in  my  detail  is 
admitted  in  the  gross  ;  but  that  quite  a  different  cpnclusion  is  drawn 
from  it.  America,  gentlemen  say,  is  a  noble  object.  It  is  an 
object  well  worth  fighting  for.  Certainly  it  is,  if  fighting  a  people 
be  the  best  way  of  gaining  them. 

First,  sir,  permit  me  to  observe  that  the  use  of  force  alone  is 
but  temporary.  It  may  subdue  for  a  moment,  but  it  does  not 
remove  the  necessity  of  subduing  again ;  and  a  nation  is  not  gov- 
erned which  is  perpetually  to  be  conquered. 

My  next  objection  is  its  uncertainty.  Terror  is  not  always  the 
effect  of  force ;  and  an  armament  is  not  a  victory.    If  you  do 


26  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

not  succeed,  you  are  without  resource  ;  for,  conciliation  failing, 
force  remains;  but,  force  failing,  no  further  hope  of  reconcili- 
ation is  left.  Power  and  authority  are  sometimes  bought  by  kind- 
ness but  they  can  never  be  begged  as  alms  by  an  impoverished 
and  defeated  violence. 

A  further  objection  to  force  is,  that  you  impair  the  object  by 
your  very  endeavors  to  preserve  it.  The  thing  you  fought  for  is 
not  the  thing  which  you  recover;  but  depreciated,  sunk,  wasted, 
and  consumed  in  the  contest.  Nothing  less  will  content  me  than 
whole  America.  I  do  not  choose  to  consume  its  strength  along 
with  our  own,  because  in  all  parts  it  is  the  British  strength  that 
I  consume.  I  do  not  choose  to  be  caught  by  a  foreign  enemy  at 
the  end  of  this  exhausting  conflict,  and  still  less  in  the  midst  of  it. 
I  may  escape  ;  but  I  can  make  no  insurance  against  such  an  event. 
Let  me  add  that  I  do  not  choose  wholly  to  break  the  American 
spirit,  because  it  is  the  spirit  that  has  made  the  country. 

These,  sir,  are  my  reasons  for  not  entertaining  that  high  opinion 
of  untried  force,  by  which  many  gentlemen,  for  whose  sentiments 
in  other  particulars  I  have  great  respect,  seem  to  be  so  greatly 
captivated. 

But  there  is  still  behind  a  third  consideration  concerning  this 
object,  which  serves  to  determine  my  opinion  on  the  sort  of  pol- 
icy which  ought  to  be  pursued  in  the  management  of  America, 
even  more  than  its  population  and  its  commerce  —  I  mean  its 
temper  and  character.  In  this  character  of  the  Americans  a  love 
of  freedom  is  thQ  predominating  feature,  which  marks  and  distin- 
guishes the  whole ;  and,  as  an  ardent  is  always  a  jealous  affection, 
your  Colonies  become  suspicious,  restive,  and  untractable  when- 
ever they  see  the  least  attempt  to  wrest  from  them  by  force,  or 
shuffle  from  them  by  chicane,  what  they  think  the  only  advantage 
worth  living  for.  This  fierce  spirit  of  liberty  is  stronger  in  the 
English  Colonies,  probably,  than  in  any  other  people  of  the  earth, 
and  this  from  a  variety  of  powerful  causes,  which,  to  understand 
the  true  temper  of  their  minds,  and  the  direction  which  this  spirit 
takes,  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  lay  open  somewhat  more  largely. 


EDMUND   BURKE  2/ 

First,  the  people  of  the  Colonies  are  descendants  of  English- 
men. England,  sir,  is  a  nation  which  still,  I  hope,  respects,  and 
formerly  adored  her  freedom.  The  Colonists  emigrated  from  you 
when  this  part  of  your  character  was  most  predominant ;  and 
they  took  this  bias  and  direction  the  moment  they  parted  from 
your  hands.  They  are,  therefore,  not  only  devoted  to  liberty, 
but  to  liberty  according  to  English  ideas  and  on  English  principles. 
Abstract  liberty,  like  other  mere  abstractions,  is  not  to  be  found. 
Liberty  inheres  in  some  sensible  object ;  and  every  nation  has 
formed  to  itself  some  favorite  point  which,  by  way  of  eminence, 
becomes  the  criterion  of  their  happiness.  It  happened  that  the 
great  contests  for  freedom  in  this  country  were,  from  the  earliest 
times,  chiefly  upon  the  question  of  taxing. 

The  question  is  not  whether  their  spirit  deserves  praise  or 
blame.  What,  in  the  name  of  God,  shall  we  do  with  it  ?  You  have 
before  you  the  object,  such  as  it  is,  with  all  its  glories,  with  all  its 
imperfections  on  its  head.  You  see  the  magnitude,  the  importance, 
the  temper,  the  habits,  the  disorders.  By  all  these  considerations 
we  are  strongly  urged  to  determine  something  concerning  it. 

Sir,  if  I  were  capable  of  engaging  you  to  an  equal  attention,  I 
would  state  that,  as  far  as  I  am  capable  of  discerning,  there  are 
but  three  ways  of  proceeding  relative  to  this  stubborn  spirit  which 
prevails  in  your  Colonies  and  disturbs  your  government.  These 
are  :  to  change  that  spirit,  as  inconvenient,  by  removing  the  causes  ; 
to  prosecute  it  as  criminal ;   or  to  comply  with  it  as  necessary. 

The  temper  and  character  which  prevail  in  our  Colonies  are,  I  am 
afraid,  unalterable  by  any  human  art.  We  cannot,  I  fear,  falsify 
the  pedigree  of  this  fierce  people,  and  persuade  them  that  they 
are  not  sprung  from  a  nation  in  whose  veins  the  blood  of  freedom 
circulates.  The  language  in  which  they  would  hear  you  tell  them 
this  tale  would  detect  the  imposition.  Your  speech  would  betray 
you.  An  Englishman  is  the  unfittest  person  on  earth  to  argue 
another  Englishman  into  slavery. 

In  this  situation  let  us  seriously  and  coolly  ponder.  What  is  it 
we  have  got  by  all  our  menaces,  which  have  been  many  and 


ZS  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

ferocious  ?  What  advantage  have  we  derived  from  the  penal  laws 
we  have  passed,  and  which,  for  the  time,  have  been  severe  and 
numerous  ?  What  advances  have  we  made  toward  our  object  by 
the  sending  of  a  force  which,  by  land  and  sea,  is  no  contempt- 
ible strength  ?  Has  the  disorder  abated  ?  Nothing  less.  When  I 
see  things  in  this  situation,  after  such  confident  hopes,  bold  prom- 
ises, and  active  exertions,  I  cannot,  for  my  part,  avoid  a  suspicion 
that  the  plan  itself  is  not  correct. 

III.   JUST  CONCESSIONS 

Burke  calls  the  ocean  an  insuperable  barrier  to  England's  authority  over 
the  American  colonies,  and  that  to  attempt  force  is  not  "  judicious,  decent, 
or  merciful."  lie  bewails  the  fact  that  England  should  enter  upon  this  war 
because  the  King  is  not  pleased  with  the  conduct  of  the  colonists.  He  pro- 
poses, therefore, 

If  the  removal  of  the  causes  of  this  spirit  of  American  liberty  be, 
for  the  greater  part,  or  rather  entirely,  impracticable,  what  way  yet 
remains  ?  No  way  is  open  but  to  comply  with  the  American  spirit 
as  necessary!  or,  if  you  please,  to  submit  to  it  as  a  necessary  evil. 
If  we  adopt  this  mode,  if  we  mean  to  conciliate  and  concede,  let  us 
see  of  what  nature  the  concessions  ought  to  be.  To  ascertain  the 
nature  of  our  concession,  we  must  look  at  their  complaint.  The 
Colonies  complain  that  they  have  not  the  characteristic  mark  and 
seal  of  British  freedom.  They  complain  that  they  are  taxed  in  Par- 
liament in  which  they  are  not  represented.  If  you  mean  to  satisfy 
them  at  all,  you  must  satisfy  them  with  regard  to  this  complaint. 
If  you  mean  to  please  any  people,  you  must  give  them  the  boon 
which  they  ask ;  not  what  you  may  think  better  for  them,  but  of  a 
kind  totally  different.  Such  an  act  may  be  a  wise  regulation,  but 
is  no  concession,  whereas  our  present  theme  is  the  mode  of  giving 
satisfaction. 

The  question  with  me  is,  not  whether  you  have  a  right  to  render 
your  people  miserable,  but  whether  it  is  not  your  interest  to  make 
them  happy.  It  is  not  what  a  lawyer  tells  me  I  may  do,  but  what 
humanity,  reason,  and  justice  tell  me  I  ought  to  do.    Is  a  politic  act 


EDMUND  BURKE  29 

the  worse  for  being  a  generous  one  ?  Is  no  concession  proper  but 
that  which  is  made  from, your  want  of  right  to  keep  what  you 
grant  ?  I  am  not  determining  a  point  of  law.  I  am  restoring  tran- 
quillity, and  the  general  character  and  situation  of  a  people  must 
determine  what  sort  of  government  is  fitted  for  them.  That  point 
nothing  else  can  or  ought  to  determine. 

My  idea,  therefore,  without  considering  whether  we  yield  as 
matter  of  right,  or  grant  as  matter  of  favor,  is  to  admit  the  people  of 
our  Colonies  into  an  interest  in  the  Constitution,  and,  by  recording 
that  admission  in  the  journals  of  Parliament,  to  give  them  as  strong 
an  assurance  as  the  nature  of  the  thing  will  admit,  that  we  mean 
forever  to  adhere  to  that  solemn  declaration  of  systematic  indul- 
gence. One  fact  is  clear  and  indisputable.  The  public  and  avowed 
origin  of  this  quarrel  was  on  taxation.  This  quarrel  has,  indeed, 
brought  on  new  disputes  on  new  questions,  but  certainly  the  least 
bitter,  and  the  fewest  of  all,  on  the  trade  laws. 

My  resolutions,  therefore,  mean  to  establish  the  equity  and  justice 
of  a  taxation  of  America,  by  grant  and  not  by  imposition  ;  to  mark 
the  legal  competency  of  the  Colony  assemblies  for  the  support  of 
their  government  in  peace  and  for  public  aids  in  time  of  war ;  to 
acknowledge  that  this  legal  competency  has  had  a  dutiful  and  bene- 
ficial exercise,  and  that  experience  has  shown  the  benefit  of  their 
grants  and  the  futility  of  parliamentary  taxation  as  a  method  of 
supply.  The  question  now  is  —  whether  you  will  choose  to  abide 
by  a  profitable  experience  or  a  mischievous  theory ;  whether  you 
choose  to  build  on  imagination  or  fact ;  whether  you  prefer  enjoy- 
ment or  hope ;  satisfaction  in  your  subjects  or  discontent. 

The  Americans  will  have  no  interest  contrary  to  the  grandeur 
and  glory  of  England,  when  they  are  not  oppressed  by  the  weight 
of  it;  I  confess  I  feel  not  the  least  alarm  from  the  discontents 
which  are  to  arise  from  putting  people  at  their  ease ;  nor  do  I 
apprehend  the  destruction  of  this  Empire  from  giving,  by  an  act  of 
free  grace  and  indulgence,  to  two  millions  of  my  fellow  citizens 
some  share  of  those  rights  which  I  have  always  been  taught  to 
value  myself. 


30  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

My  hold  of  the  Colonies  is  in  the  close  affection  which  grows 
from  common  names,  from  kindred  bloo^,  from  similar  privileges, 
and  equal  protection.  These  are  ties  which,  though  light  as  air,  are 
as  strong  as  links  of  iron.  Let  the  Colonies  always  keep  the  idea 
of  their  civil  rights  associated  with  your  government ;  they  will  cling 
and  grapple  to  you,  and  no  force  under  heaven  will  be  of  power 
to  tear  them  from  their  allegiance.  But  let  it  be  once  understood 
that  your  government  may  be  one  thing  and  their  privileges  an- 
other ;  that  these  two  things  may  exist  without  any  mutual  relation  ; 
the  cement  is  gone;  the  cohesion  is  loosened;  and  everything  hastens 
to  decay  and  dissolution. 

As  long  as  you  have  the  wisdom  to  keep  the  sovereign  authority 
of  this  country  as  the  sanctuary  of  liberty,  the  sacred  temple  conse- 
crated to  our  common  faith ;  wherever  the  chosen  race  and  sons  of 
England  worship  Freedom,  they  will  turn  their  faces  toward  you. 
The  more  they  multiply,  the  more  friends  you  will  have.  The  more 
ardently  they  love  liberty,  the  more  perfect  will  be  their  obedience. 
Deny  them  participation  of  freedom,  and  you  break  that  sole  bond 
which  originally  made,  and  must  still  preserve,  the  unity  of  the  Em- 
pire. Do  not  entertain  so  weak  an  imagination  as  that  your  regis- 
ters and  your  bonds,  your  affidavits  and  your  sufferances,  are  what 
form  the  great  securities  of  your  commerce.  Do  not  dream  that 
your  letters  of  office  and  your  instructions,  and  your  suspending 
clauses,  are  the  things  that  hold  together  the  great  contexture  of 
this  mysterious  whole.  These  things  do  not  make  your  government. 
It  is  the  spirit  of  the  English  Constitution,  which,  infused  through 
the  mighty  mass,  pervades,  feeds,  unites,  invigorates,  vivifies  every 
part  of  the  Empire,  even  down  to  the  minutest  member. 

Is  it  not  the  same  virtue  which  does  everything  for  us  here  in 
England  ?  Do  you  imagine,  then,  that  it  is  the  Land  Tax  Act  which 
raises  your  revenue  ?  that  it  is  the  annual  vote  in  the  Committee 
of  Supply  which  gives  you  your  army  ?  or  that  it  is  the  Mutiny  Bill 
which  inspires  it  with  bravery  and  discipline }  No  !  surely  no  !  It 
is  the  love  of  the  people,  it  is  their  attachment  to  their. government, 
from  the  sense  of  the  deep  stake  they  have  in  such  a  glorious 


EDMUND  BURKE  31 

institution,  which  gives  you  your  army  and  your  navy,  and  infuses 
into  both  that  liberal  obedience  without  which  your  army  would 
be  a  base  rabble,  and  your  navy  nothing  but  rotten  timber. 

All  this,  I  know  well  enough,  will  sound  wild  and  chimerical  to 
the  profane  herd  of  vulgar  and  mechanical  politicians  who  have  no 
place  among  us,  —  a  sort  of  people  who  think  that  nothing  exists 
but  what  is  gross  and  material  and  who,  therefore,  far  from  being 
qualified  to  be  directors  of  the  great  movement  of  empire,  are  not 
fit  to  turn  a  wheel  in  the  machine.  But  to  men  truly  initiated  and 
rightly  taught,  these  ruling  and  master  principles,  which  in  the  opin- 
ion of  such  men  as  I  have  mentioned  have  no  substantial  existence, 
are  in  truth  everything  and  all  in  all. 

Magnanimity  in  politics  is  not  seldom  the  truest  wisdom ;  and  a 
great  empire  and  little  minds  go  ill  together.  If  we  are  conscious 
of  our  situation,  and  glow  with  zeal  to  fill  our  place  as  becomes  our 
station  and  ourselves,  we  ought  to  elevate  our  minds  to  the  great- 
ness of  that  trust  to  which  the  order  of  Providence  has  called  us. 
By  adverting  to  the  dignity  of  this  high  calling,  our  ancestors  have 
turned  a  savage  wilderness  into  a  glorious  empire,  and  have  made 
the  most  extensive  and  the  only  honorable  conquests  not  by  destroy- 
ing, but  by  promoting,  the  wealth,  the  number,  the  happiness  of  the 
human  race.  Let  us  get  an  American  revenue  as  we  have  got  an 
American  empire.  English  privileges  have  made  it  all  that  it  is ; 
English  privileges  alone  will  make  it  all  that  it  can  be. 


CHARLES  JAMES  FOX 


Charles  James  Fox  (1749- 1806)  inherited  the  blood  and 
even  the  favor  of  the  Stuarts  of  England,  and  was  also  a 
lineal  descendant  of  Henry  IV  of  France.    His  father,  Henry 

Fox,  afterwards  Lord  Hol- 
land, was  a  man  of  dissolute 
habits,  who  was  determined 
that  his  son  should  be  sur- 
rounded with  every  luxury 
that  money  could  procure, 
and  yet  whose  sole  ambition 
was  to  make  of  him  a  great 
debater  and  a  powerful  states- 
man. Accordingly  he  did  all 
in  his  power  to  contribute  to 
that  end,  and  superintended 
with  great  care  the  lad's  early 
training.  Under  competent  in- 
structors young  Charles  early 
formed  a  taste  for  study,  and 
devoted  himself  to  the  classics,  to  modern  languages,  and  to 
other  branches  of  a  liberal  training.  He  spent  four  years  at 
Eton,  where  he  distinguished  himself  both  for  scholarship 
and  dissipation.  Later,  at  Oxford,  he  devoted  himself  to  the 
severest  mental  discipline  and  yet  did  not  cease  his  vicious 
habits.  His  favorite  studies  were  the  classics,  history,  and 
eloquence.  Classical  literature  was  one  of  his  chief  recrea- 
tions. He  read  Demosthenes'  speeches  as  readily  as  the 
speeches  made*in  Parliament.   Homer,  Euripides,  Virgil,  and 

32 


CHARLES  JAMES  FOX  33 

Shakespeare  were  his  favorite  poetSj  and  he  found  in  Euripi- 
des an  argumentative  style  much  to  his  taste.  Fox  says  him- 
self that  "  the  study  of  good  authors,  and  especially  poets, 
ought  never  to  be  intermitted  by  any  man  who  is  to  speak 
or  write  for  the  public,  or  indeed  who  has  any  occasion  to 
tax  his  imagination,  whether  it  be  for  argument,  for  illustra- 
tion, for  ornament,  for  sentiment,  or  for  any  other  purpose." 

After  leaving  Oxford  he  spent  much  time  in  travel  on  the 
continent,  where  his  already  excellent  knowledge  of  the  mod- 
ern languages  became  minute  and  profound,  and  at  the  same 
time  he  attained  a  considerable  knowledge  of  the  masterpieces 
of  art  in  the  galleries  of  Europe. 

As  a  student  of  oratory  Fox  must  be  ranked  among  the 
most  persistent  and  successful.  He  was  not  only  a  constant 
reader  of  the  best  specimens  of  eloquence,  but  he  compelled 
himself  to  commit  and  declaim  the  most  stirring  passages. 
He  accepted  every  opportunity  to  debate  at  Eton  and  Ox- 
ford, and  thus  began  early  to  acquire  and  develop  his  splen- 
did powers  of  argument  and  expression.  To  perfect  his 
elocution  he  devoted  much  time  to  Shakespearean  reading 
and  to  theatricals,  in  which  he  attained  considerable  celebrity 
as  an  actor.  Thus  he  overcame  in  great  measure  his  defects 
of  voice  and  manner  and  the  natural  tendency  to  be  discon- 
certed on  first  rising  to  speak.  One  of  the  chief  sources  of 
his  success  lay  in  the  fact  that  he  embraced  every  opportunity 
to  speak,  and  created  opportunities  when  they  did  not  present 
themselves. 

He  is  accused  of  attaining  his  skill  at  the  expense  of  those 
who  heard  him.  We  are  told  that  after  he  entered  Parlia- 
ment, at  the  age  of  nineteen,  he  tasked  himself  to  pre- 
pare and  speak  on  every  important  measure  that  came  up, 
whether  he  was  particularly  interested  in  it  or  not,  or  whether 
at  first  he  knew  anything  about  it  or  not.    This  was  done  for 


34  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

the  sake  of  perfecting  himself  in  the  art  of  debating,  and  of 
gaining  wide  knowledge  of  affairs.  ''  During  five  whole  ses- 
sions," he  once  said,  ''  I  spoke  every  night  but  one,  and  I 
regret  that  I  did  not  speak  on  that  night  too." 

His  style  lacked  ornament  and  was  somewhat  loose  and 
careless,  but  it  was  terse,  full  of  point  and  good  sense.  His 
speeches  do  not  read  as  well  as  those  of  some  of  his  compeers. 
When  told  that  a  speech  read  well,  he  said,  ''  Then  it  must 
have  been  a  bad  speech."  In  compactness  and  massiveness 
of  style  his  speeches  cannot  be  compared  with  those  of  Er- 
skine  and  Webster.  He  believed  in  amplification.  He  says  in 
regard  to  repeating  arguments :  "  It  is  better  that  some  should 
observe  it,  than  that  any  should  not  understand."  Erskine 
says  that  "  he  was  in  the  habit  of  passing  and  repassing  his 
subject  in  fascinating  review,  enlightening  every  part  of  it, 
and  binding  even  his  adversaries  in  a  kind  of  spell,  for  the 
moment,  of  involuntary  assent."  Burke  called  him  ''the  most 
brilliant  and  accomplished  debater  the  world  ever  saw."  Argu- 
ment was  his  delight.  He  could  keep  before  him  all  the 
points  of  an  opponent's  argument  and  quickly  discover  the 
vulnerable  parts.  It  was  most  exasperating  to  his  opponents 
to  hear  him  state  their  side  of  a  case  stronger  than  they  could 
do  it  themselves,  and  then  tear  it  to  pieces.  At  such  times 
argument  was  heaped  on  argument,  until  no  point  of  attack 
was  left  open  to  his  adversary.  Taunt  could  not  disconcert 
him.  Happy  in  retort  and  repartee,  ''  he  had  astonishing 
dexterity  in  evading  difficulties  and  turning  to  his  own  ad- 
vantage everything  that  occurred  in  debate." 

Some  of  the  distinguishing  features  of  his  oratory  are 
these  :  his  simplicity  and  unity,  the  habit  of  bending  every 
energy  toward  eliicidating  the  main  points,  and  of  selecting 
great  principles  as  the  heart  of  his  speech  and  then  sur- 
rounding and  entangling  his  opponents ;  the  absence  of  any 


CHARLES  JAMES   FOX  35 

preconceived  arrangement  of  matter  or  language ;  his  choice 
of  words  ("  Give  me  an  elegant  Latin  and  a  homely  Saxon 
word,"  he  said,  "and  I  will  always  choose  the  latter");  his 
abundant  sarcasm  (his  side  blows  at  his  opponents,  as  he 
rushed  on  with  his  arguments,  aroused  his  audiences  even 
more  than  his  loftiest  strains  of  eloquence) ;  his  unfailing  mem- 
ory and  great  fund  of  information.  It  was  not  the  length  and 
roundness  of  his  periods  that  weighed  so  heavily,  but  the  truth 
and  vigor  of  his  conceptions. 

Fox's  manner  on  rising  to  address  an  audience  was  awk- 
ward ;  he  would  hesitate,  knew  not  what  to  do  with  his  hands, 
fumbled  his  papers,  and  went  lumbering  along  with  a  kind 
of  careless  air  which  did  not  disappear  for  several  minutes ; 
but  gaining  impetus,  his  strong  personality,  his  vehement  ges- 
ture, his  involuntary  exclamation,  his  choking  utterance,  con- 
vinced those  who  were  at  first  disappointed  in  him  that  he 
was  sincere.  But  when  he  got  deeply  into  his  subject  his 
genius  kindled.  He  forgot  himself  and  was  changed  into 
another  being.  Mr.  Goodwin  says,  "  I  have  seen  his  counte- 
nance light  up  with  more  than  mortal  ardor  and  goodness  ;  I 
have  been  present  when  his  voice  was  suffocated  with  tears." 
Few  if  any  ever  surpassed  Fox  in  earnestness.  It  was  con- 
tagious. His  audience  caught  the  same  spirit.  Sheridan  re- 
marked that  ''  he  spoke  with  lightning  rapidity  and  with 
breathless  anxiety  and  impatience." 

His  sweetness  and  power  of  tone,  his  pathos  and  impetu- 
osity, his  intellectual  strength  and  his  intense  personality, 
united  to  make  him  the  greatest  of  debaters  and  one  of  the 
first  of  the  English  orators.  While  he  was  less  far-reaching 
than  Burke,  he  had  more  tact,  could  better  adapt  himself  to 
his  surroundings,  and  hence  was  more  convincing  and  useful 
as  a  legislator.  An  English  writer  institutes  this  comparison 
between  Fox  and  his  great  rival,  the  Younger  Pitt:  "  Pitt's 


36  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

Style  was  stately,  sonorous,  full  to  abundance,  smooth  and 
regular  in  its  flow ;  Fox's  free  to  carelessness,  rapid,  rush- 
ing, turbid,  broken,  but  overwhelming  in  its  swell.  Pitt  never 
sank  below  his  ordinary  level,  never  paused  in  his  declama- 
tion, never  hesitated  for  a  word ;  Fox  was  desultory  and 
ineffective  till  he  warmed ;  he  did  best  when  provoked  or 
excited.  He  required  the  kindling  impulse,  the  explosive 
spark."  Mackintosh  calls  him  ''the  most  Demosthenian  ora- 
tor since  Demosthenes."  But  Lord  Brougham  thinks  the 
points  of  difference  were  numerous  and  important.  He  would 
not  compare  the  men  except  as  you  compare  any  two  great 
and  powerful  speakers.  He  thinks  that  Fox  lacked  the  power 
of  Demosthenes,  though  he  had  the  skill,  possessed  by  few 
in  so  great  a  degree,  of  keeping  close  to  his  subject.  Good- 
rich, in  commenting  on  these  differences  of  opinion,  remarks 
that  in  some  respects  ''  Fox  was  the  very  reverse  of  the  great 
Athenian  ;  as  to  others  they  had  much  in  common.  In  what- 
ever related  to  the  forms  of  oratory  —  symmetry,  dignity, 
grace,  the  working  up  of  thought  and  language  to  their  most 
perfect  expression  —  Mr.  Fox  was  not  only  inferior  to  De- 
mosthenes, but  wholly  unlike  him,  having  no  rhetoric  and 
no  "ideality;  while  at  the  same  time,  in  the  structure  of  his 
understanding,  the  modes  of  its  operation,  the  soul  and  spirit 
which  breathes  throughout  his  eloquence,  there  is  a  striking 
resemblance." 

Fox  had  a  generous,  noble  heart  and  quick  sensibilities. 
This  is  the  spring  and  fountain  of  his  eloquence.  Without 
manly  and  generous  feelings,  a  sympathetic  and  ardent  spirit, 
amiable  social  qualities,  and  warm  affections,  no  man  can 
reach  the  hearts  of  the  people.  Spontaneity  was  his  supreme 
gift.  Study  of  oratory  did  much  for  him,  but  the  effusion  of 
the  divine  spirit  counted  for  more.  Though  not  the  great- 
est English   orator,  he  was  the  most  gifted.    Two  things 


CHARLES  JAMES  FOX  37 

prevented  his  reaching  the  highest  pinnacle  :  first,  he  was 
wanting  in  compactness  of  matter  and  strength  of  style,  which 
come  by  care  and  diligence  in  writing,  —  he  left  too  much  to 
inspiration  and  too  little  to  study  ;  second,  he  was  wanting 
in  moral  stalwartness.  One  biographer  remarks  of  him  : 
"  Recklessness  and  vice  can  hardly  fail  to  destroy  the  influ- 
ence of  the  most  splendid  abilities  and  the  most  humane  and 
generous  disposition.  Though  thirty-eight  years  in  public  life, 
he  was  in  office  only  eighteen  months."  The  ideal  orator  and 
statesman  must  be  every  inch  a  man,  heart  as  well  as  brain. 
It  is  remarkable  that  one  whose  youth  was  so  dissolute, 
whose  whole  life  was  partly  given  to  vice,  should  accomplish 
so  much  as  a  statesman.  Nothing  but  the  strongest  of  con- 
stitutions and  the  most  cheerful  and  buoyant  of  dispositions 
could  have  withstood  so  much.  But  for  his  dissolute  habits 
which  lost  him  public  confidence,  his  brilliant  intellect  and 
his  political  sagacity  might  have  won  for  him  the  highest 
honors  in  the  gift  of  the  English  people.  His  eloquence  was 
in  great  measure  neutralized  by  his  reputation  for  reckless- 
ness. The  people  could  not  dissociate  him  from  the  gamester. 
They  had  too  much  self-respect  to  yield  themselves  entirely 
to  his  influence.  These  words  of  Dr.  Price,  thundered  from  the 
pulpit,  more  than  any  other  one  cause,  thwarted  Fox  in  his 
ambition  to  become  premier  :  "  Can  you  imagine  that  a  spend- 
thrift in  his  own  concerns  will  make  an  economist  in  manag- 
ing the  concerns  of  others  ;  that  a  wild  gamester  will  take 
due  care  of  the  state  of  a  kingdom  .?  "  Notwithstanding  Fox's 
fascinating  influence  and  his  immense  popularity  with  his' 
countrymen,  they  withheld  their  suffrages  from  him.  They 
admired  his  talents,  but  their  verdict  was,  "thus  far  shalt 
thou  go  and  no  farther."  This  indifference  on  the  part  of 
his  countrymen  stung  him  into  partial  reform.  He  set  to 
work  with  redoubled  energy  to  the  business  of  the  House  and 


38  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

became  more  and  more  influential  in  state  affairs.  Posterity 
must  credit  him  with  the  reforms  he  made  in  his  character, 
and  look  beyond  to  the  ennobling,  far-reaching  influence 
of  his  career,  for  his  life  was  a  stirring  protest  against  hu- 
man oppression.  In  the  darkest  hour  of  the  early  history  of 
America  he  dared  to  be  the  first  to  raise  his  eloquent  voice 
against  the  hateful  Stamp  Act  and  the  tyranny  of  George  III. 
Fox's  speeches  on  American  affairs  come  to  us  only  in 
fragments,  but  he  joined  with  Chatham  and  Burke  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  Stamp  Act  and  "taxation  without  representa- 
tion."   Other  of  his  published  speeches  are  as  follows  : 

1.  On  the  ''  East  India  Bill,"  delivered  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  December  i,.i783. 

2.  A  second  speech  on  the  ''  East  India  Bill,"  dwelling 
on  the  ''  Secret  Influences  "  to  defeat  it,  delivered  in  the 
House,  December  17,  1783. 

3.  "The  Westminster  Scrutiny,"  a  speech  on  the  inves- 
tigation of  the  election  returns  from  the  city  of  Westminster, 
delivered  in  the  House,  June  8,  1784. 

4.  On  the  "  Russian  Armament,"  delivered  in  the  House, 
March  i,  1792. 

5.  On  "Parliamentary  Reform,"  delivered  in  the  House, 
May  26,  1797- 

6.  On  the  "  Rejection  of  Bonaparte's  Overtures,"  an  an- 
swer to  Pitt's  proposal  not  to  treat  with  Bonaparte,  delivered 
in  the  House,  February  3,  1800. 


CHARLES  JAMES   FOX  39 

THE  AMERICAN  WAR 

From  a  speech  on  conditions  in  America,  delivered  in  the  House  of 
Commons  in  1780,  by  Charles  James  Fox.  He  was  the  first  to  deplore  the 
attitude  of  the  British  king  toward  the  American  colonies,  and  to  rejoice 
in  the  resistance  and  the  triumphs  of  the  colonists. 

We  are  charged  with  expressing  joy  at  the  triumphs  of  America. 
True  it  is  that,  in  a  former  session,  I  proclaimed  it  as  my  sincere 
opinion,  that  if  the  ministry  had  succeeded  in  their  first  scheme  on 
the  liberties  of  America,  the  liberties  of  this  country  would  have 
been  at  an  end.  Thinking  this,  as  I  did,  in  the  sincerity  of  an 
honest  heart,  I  rejoiced  at  the  resistance  which  the  ministry  had 
met  to  their  attempt.  That  great  and  glorious  statesman,  the  late 
Earl  of  Chatham,  feeling  for  the  liberties  of  his  native  country, 
thanked  God  that  America  had  resisted.  But,  it  seems,  '"  all  the 
calamities  of  the  country  are  to  be  ascribed  to  the  wishes,  and  the 
joy,  and  the  speeches  of  Opposition."  O  miserable  and  unfortunate 
ministry  !  O  blind  and  incapable  men  !  whose  measures  are  framed 
with  so  little  foresight,  and  executed  with  so  little  firmness,  that 
they  not  only  crumble  to  pieces,  but  bring  on  the  ruin  of  their  coun- 
try, merely  because  one  rash,  weak,  or  wicked  man,  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  makes  a  speech  against  them ! 

But  who  is  he  who  arraigns  gentlemen  on  this  side  of  the  House 
with  causing,  by  their  inflammatory  speeches,  the  misfortunes  of 
their  country  ?  The  accusation  comes  from  one  whose  inflammatory 
harangues  have  led  the  nation,  step  by  step,  from  violence  to  violence, 
in  that  inhuman,  unfeeling  system  of  blood  and  massacre,  which 
every  honest  man  must  detest,  which  every  good  man  must  abhor, 
and  every  wise  man  condemn !  And  this  man  imputes  the  guilt  of 
such  measures  to  those  who  had  all  along  foretold  the  consequences ; 
who  had  prayed,  entreated,  and  supplicated,  not  only  for  America 
but  for  the  credit  of  the  nation  and  its  eventual  welfare,  to  arrest 
the  hand  of  power  meditating  slaughter,  and  directed  by  injustice! 

What  was  the  consequence  of  the  sanguinary  measures  recom- 
mended in  those  bloody,  inflammatory  speeches .?    Though  Boston 


40  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

was  to  be  starved,  though  Hancock  and  Adams  were  proscribed, 
yet  at  the  feet  of  these  very  men  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain 
was  obliged  to  kneel,  flatter,  and  cringe ;  and,  as  it  had  the  cruelty 
at  one  time  to  denounce  vengeance  against  these  men,  so  it  had  the 
meanness  afterwards  to  implore  their  forgiveness.  Shall  he  who 
called  the  Americans  "  Hancock  and  his  crew  "  —  shall  he  presume 
to  reprehend  any  set  of  men  for  inflammatory  speeches  ?  It  is  this 
accursed  American  war.  that  has  led  us,  step  by  step,  into  all  our 
present  misfortunes  and  national  disgraces.  What  was  the  cause 
of  our  wasting  forty  millions  of  money  and  sixty  thousand  lives  ? 
The  American  war !  What  was  it  that  produced  the  French  rescript 
and  a  French  war  ?  The  American  war  1  What  was  it  that  pro- 
duced the  Spanish  manifesto  and  Spanish  war.?  The  American 
war !  What  was  it  that  armed  forty-two  thousand  men  in  Ireland 
with  the  arguments  carried  on  the  points  of  forty  thousand  bayo- 
nets ?  The  American  war !  For  what  are  we  about  to  incur  an 
additional  debt  of  twelve  or  fourteen  millions  ?  This  accursed,  cruel, 
diabolical  American  war ! 


REJECTION  OF  BONAPARTE'S  OVERTURES 

Delivered  in  the  House  of  Commons,  February  3,  1800.  Napoleon  had 
usurped  the  government  of  France,  had  become  First  Consul,  and  had  made 
overtures  of  peace  to  the  king  of  England.  Pitt  the  Younger,  then  prime 
minister  of  England,  having  no  belief  in  the  permanence  of  Napoleon's 
power,  rejected  the  overtures.  Fox  condemned  Pitt  for  refusing  to  treat, 
and  censured  him  for  the  "  severe  and  unconciliating  terms  in  which  a  re- 
spectful offer  of  negotiation  had  been  rejected." 

I.    ENGLAND  THE  AGGRESSOR 

Sir,  my  honorable  and  learned  friend  has  truly  said  that  the 
present  is  a  new  era  in  the  war,  for,  by  traveling  back  to  the  com- 
mencement of  the  war,  and  referring  again  to  all  the  topics  and 
arguments  which  he  has  so  often  and  so  successfully  urged  upon 
the  House,  and  by  which  he  has  drawn  them  on  to  the  support  of 
his  measures,  he  is  forced  to  acknowledge  that,  at  the  end  of  a 


CHARLES  JAMES   FOX  4 1 

seven  years'  conflict,  we  are  come  but  to  a  new  era  in  the  war,  at 
which  he  thinks  it  necessary  only  to  press  all  his  former  arguments 
to  induce  us  to  persevere.  All  the  topics  which  have  so  often  mis- 
led us  —  all  the  reasoning  which  has  so  invariably  failed  —  all  the 
lofty  predictions  which  have  so  constantly  been  falsified  by  events 

—  all  the  hopes  which  have  amused  the  sanguine,  and  all  the  as- 
surances of  the  distress  and  weakness  of  the  enemy  which  have 
satisfied  the  unthinking,  are  again  enumerated  and  advanced  as 
arguments  for  our  continuing  war.  What !  at  the  end  of  seven 
years  of  the  most  burdensome  and  the  most  calamitous  struggle  in 
which  this  country  ever  was  engaged,  are  we  again  to  be  amused 
with  notions  of  finance,  and  calculations  of  the  exhausted  resources 
of  the  enemy,  as  a  ground  of  confidence  and  of  hope  ? 

Gracious  God !  were  we  not  told  five  years  ago  that  France  was 
not  only  on  the  brink  and  in  the  jaws  of  ruin,  but  that  she  was 
actually  sunk  into  the  gulf  of  bankruptcy  ?  Were  we  not  told,  as 
an  unanswerable  argument  against  treating,  "  that  she  could  not 
hold  out  another  campaign  —  that  nothing  but  peace  could  save 
her  —  that  she  wanted  only  time  to  recruit  her  exhausted  finances 

—  that  to  grant  her  repose  was  to  grant  her  the  means  of  again 
miolesting  this  country,  and  that  we  had  nothing  to  do  but  persevere 
for  a  short  time,  in  order  to  save  ourselves  forever  from  the  conse- 
quences of  her  ambition  and  her  Jacobinism?"  What !  after  having 
gone  on  from  year  to  year  upon  assurances  like  these,  and  after 
having  seen  the  repeated  refutations  of  every  prediction,  are  we 
again  to  be  gravely  and  seriously  assured  that  we  have  the  same 
prospect  of  success  on  the  same  identical  grounds  ?  And,  without 
any  other  argument  or  security,  are  we  invited,  at  this  new  era  of 
the  war,  to  conduct  it  upon  principles  which,  if  adopted  and  acted 
upon,  may  make  it  eternal  ?  If  the  right  honorable  gentleman  shall 
succeed  in  prevailing  on  Parliament  and  the  country  to  adopt  the 
principles  which  he  has  advanced  this  night,  I  see  no  possible  ter- 
mination to  the  contest.  No  man  can  see  an  end  to  it ;  and  upon 
the  assurances  and  predictions  which  have  so  uniformly  failed, 
we  are  called  upon  not  merely  to  refuse  all  negotiations,  but  to 


42  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

countenance  principles  and  views  as  distant  from  wisdom  and 
justice  as  they  are  in  their  nature  wild  and  impracticable. 

I  must  lament  that  the  right  honorable  gentleman  [Mr.  Pitt]  has 
thought  proper  to  go  at  such  length  into  all  the  early  circumstances 
of  the  war.  I  do  not  agree  with  him  in  many  of  his  assertions.  I  do 
not  know  what  impression  his  narrative  may  make  on  other  gentle- 
men ;  but  I  will  tell  him  fairly  and  candidly,  he  has  not  convinced 
me.  I  continue  to  think,  and  until  I  see  better  grounds  for  chang- 
ing my  opinion  than  any  that  the  right  honorable  gentleman  has 
this  night  produced,  I  shall  continue  to  think,  and  to  say,  plainly 
and  explicitly,  ''  that  this  country  was  the  aggressor  in  the  war." 

Will  any  gentleman  say  that  if  two  of  the  great  powers  should 
make  a  public  declaration  that  they  were  determined  to  make  an 
attack  on  this  kingdom  as  soon  as  circumstances  should  favor  their 
intention,  that  they  only  waited  for  this  occasion,  and  that  in  the 
meantime  they  would  keep  their  forces  ready  for  the  purpose,  it 
would  not  be  considered  by  the  Parliament  and  people  of  this 
country  as  a  hostile  aggression  ?  And  is  there  any  Englishman  in 
existence  who  is  such  a  friend  to  peace  as  to  say  that  the  nation 
could  retain  its  honor  and  dignity  if  it  should  sit  down  under  such 
a  menace  ?  I  know  too  well  what  is  due  to  the  national  character 
of  England  to  believe  that  there  would  be  two  opinions  on  the  case, 
if  thus  put  home  to  our  feelings  and  understandings.  We  must, 
then,  respect  in  others  the  indignation  which  such  an  act  would  ex- 
cite in  ourselves ;  and  when  we  see  it  established  on  the  most  in- 
disputable testimony,  that  declarations  were  made  to  this  effect,  it 
is  idle  to  say  that,  as  far  as  the  emperor  and  the  king  of  Prussia 
were  concerned,  they  were  not  the  aggressors  in  the  war. 


CHARLES  JAMES   FOX  43 

II.    POLICY  OF  THE  BOURBONS 

Fox,  while  condemning  the  atrocities  of  the  French,  shows  the  outrages 
practiced  on  Poland  and  other  countries  by  the  powers  in  league  with  Eng- 
land ;  and  holds  it  inconsistent  not  to  treat  with  the  French  when  the  coun- 
tries offending  against  Poland  are  taken  into  alliance. 

Sir,  I  am  not  justifying  the  French ;  I  am  not  trying  to  absolve 
them  from  blame,  either  in  their  internal  or  external  policy.  I  think, 
on  the  contrary,  that  their  successive  rulers  have  been  as  bad  and 
as  execrable,  in  various  instances,  as  any  of  the  most  despotic  and 
unprincipled  governments  that  the  world  ever  saw.  I  think  it  im- 
possible, sir,  that  it  should  have  been  otherwise.  It  was  not  to  be 
expected  that  the  French,  when  once  engaged  in  foreign  wars, 
should  not  endeavor  to  spread  destruction  around  them,  and  to 
form  plans  of  aggrandizement  and  plunder  on  every  side.  Men  bred 
in  the  school  of  the  House  of  Bourbon  could  not  be  expected  to  act 
otherwise.  They  could  not  have  lived  so  long  under  their  ancient 
masters  without  imbibing  the  restless  ambition,  the  perfidy,  and 
the  insatiable  spirit  of  the  race.  They  have  imitated  the  practice  of 
their  great  prototype,  and,  through  their  whole  career  of  mischiefs 
and  of  crimes,  have  done  no  more  than  servilely  trace  the  steps  of 
their  own  Louis  XIV.  If  they  have  overrun  countries  and  ravaged 
them,  they  have  done  it  upon  Bourbon  principles ;  if  they  have 
ruined  and  dethroned  sovereigns,  it  is  entirely  after  the  Bourbon 
manner ;  if  they  have  even  fraternized  with  the  people  of  foreign 
countries,-  and  pretended  to  make  their  cause  their  own,  they  have 
only  faithfully  followed  the  Bourbon  example.  They  have  con- 
stantly had  Louis,  the  Grand  Monarch,  in  their  eye. 

Now,  sir,  what  was  the  conduct  of  your  own  allies  to  Poland  ? 
Is  there  a  single  atrocity  of  the  French,  in  Italy,  in  Switzerland,  in 
Egypt,  if  you  please,  more  unprincipled  and  inhuman  than  that  of 
Russia,  Austria,  and  Prussia,  in  Poland  ?  What  has  there  been  in 
the  conduct  of  the  French  to  foreign  powers  ;  what  in  the  violation 
of  solemn  treaties ;  what  in  the  plunder,  devastation,  and  dismem- 
berment of  unoffending  countries  ;  what  in  the  horrors  and  murders 


44  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

perpetrated  upon  the  subdued  victims  of  their  rage  in  any  district 
which  they  have  overrun,  worse  than  the  conduct  of  those  three 
great  powers  in  the  miserable,  devoted,  and  trampled-on  Kingdom 
of  Poland,  and  who  have  been,  or  are,  our  allies  in  this  war  for 
religion  and  social  order  and  the  rights  of  nations  ? 

"  Oh,  but  you  regretted  the  partition  of  Poland ! "  Yes,  re- 
gretted !  you  regretted  the  violence,  and  that  is  all  you  did.  You 
united  yourselves  with  the  actors ;  you,  in  fact,  by  your  acquiescence, 
confirmed  the  atrocity. 

Let  unfortunate  Warsaw,  and  the  miserable  inhabitants  of  the 
suburb  of  Praga  in  particular  tell !  What  do  we  understand  to  have 
been  the  conduct  of  this  magnanimous  hero,  with  whom,  it  seems, 
Bonaparte  is  not  to  be  compared  ?  He  entered  the  suburb  of  Praga, 
the  most  populous  suburb  of  Warsaw  ;  and  there  he  let  his  soldiery 
loose  on  the  miserable,  unarmed,  and  unresisting  people.  Men, 
women,  and  children,  nay  infants  at  the  breast,  were  doomed  to 
one  indiscriminate  massacre  !  ^Thousands  of  them  were  inhumanly, 
wantonly  butchered,  and  for  what?  Because  they  have  dared  to 
join  in  a  wish  to  ameliorate  their  own  condition  as  a  people  and  to 
improve  their  Constitution,  which  had  been  confessed  by  their  own 
sovereign  to  be  in  want  of  amendment.  And  such  is  the  hero  upon 
whom  the  cause  of  religion  and  social  order  is  to  repose  !  And  such 
is  the  man  whom  we  praise  for  his  discipline  and  his  virtue,  and 
whom  we  hold  out  as  our  boast  and  our  dependence ;  while  the 
conduct  of  Bonaparte  unfits  him  to  be  even  treated  with  as  an 
enemy  I 

"  But  France,"  it  seems,  "  has  roused  all  the  nations  of  Europe 
against  her" ;  and  the  long  catalogue  has  been  read  to  you,  to  prove 
that  she  must  have  been  atrocious  to  provoke  them  all.  Is  it  true, 
sir,  that  she  has  roused  them  all  ?  It  does  not  say  much  for  the 
address  of  his  Majesty's  ministers,  if  this  be  the  case.  What,  sir ! 
have  all  your  negotiations,  all  your  declamations,  all  your  money, 
been  squandered  in  vain  ?  Have  you  not  succeeded  in  stirring  the 
indignation,  and  engaging  the  assistance,  of  a  single  power  ?  But 
you  do  yourselves  injustice.    Full  as  much  is  due  to  your  seductions 


CHARLES  JAMES   FOX  45 

as  to  her  atrocities.  You  cannot  accuse  France  of  having  provoked 
all  Europe,  and  at  the  same  time  claim  the  merit  of  having  roused 
all  Europe  to  join  you. 

No  man  regrets,  sir,  more  than  I  do,  the  enormities  that  France 
has  committed ;  but  how  do  they  bear  upon  the  question  as  it 
at  present  stands?  Are  we  forever  to  deprive  ourselves  of  the 
benefits  of  peace  because  France  has  perpetrated  acts  of  injustice  ? 
Sir,  we  cannot  acquit  ourselves  upon  such  ground.  We  have 
negotiated.  With  the  knowledge  of  these  acts  of  injustice  and 
disorder,  we  have  treated  with  them  twice  ;  yet  the  right  honorable 
gendeman  cannot  enter  into  negotiation  with  them  again.  The 
Revolution  itself  is  no  more  an  objection  now  than  it  was  in  the 
year  1796,  when  he  did  negotiate.  For  the  government  of  France 
at  that  time  was  surely  as  unstable  as  it  is  at  present. 

III.   WAR,  A  STATE  OF  PROBATION 

Fox  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  Pitt  refused  to  treat  because  of  the 
instability  of  the  French  government  and  because  of  certain  outrages  they 
had  committed,  and  declares  that  Pitt  himself  had  twice  opened  negoti- 
ations for  peace  in  the  midst  of  the  outrages  referred  to.  Now  he  accuses 
Pitt  of  wanting  "to  keep  Bonaparte  some  time  longer  at  war,  as  a  state  of 
probation,"  to  see  "  if  he  will  not  behave  himself  better  than  heretofore." 

I  hope  by  this  time  we  are  all  convinced  that  a  republican 
government,  like  that  of  America,  may  exist  without  danger  or 
injury  to  social  order  or  to  established  monarchies.  They  have 
happily  shown  that  they  can  maintain  the  relations  of  peace  and 
amity  with  other  states.  They  have  shown,  too,  that  they  are  alive 
to  the  feelings  of  honor ;  but  they  do  not  lose  sight  of  plain  good 
sense  and  discretion.  They  have  not  refused  to  negotiate  with  the 
French,  and  they  have  accordingly  the  hopes  of  a  speedy  termina- 
tion of  every  difference.  We  cry  up  their  conduct,  but  we  do  not 
imitate  it. 

Where,  then,  sir,  is  this  war,  which  on  every  side  is  pregnant 
with  such  horrors,  to  be  carried  ?  Where  is  it  to  stop  ?  Not  till  we 
establish  the  House  of  Bourbon  !    And  this  you  cherish  the  hope  of 


46  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

doing,  because  you  have  had  a  successful  campaign.  So  that  we 
are  called  upon  to  go  on  merely  as  a  speculation.  We  must  keep 
Bonaparte  for  some  time  longer  at  war,  as  a  state  of  probation. 
Gracious  God,  sir !  is  war  a  state  of  probation  ?  Is  peace  a  rash 
system  ?  Is  it  dangerous  for  nations  to  live  in  amity  with  each 
other?  Are  your  vigilance,  your  policy,  your  common  powers  of 
observation,  to  be  extinguished  by  putting  an  end  to  the  horrors 
of  war  ?  Cannot  this  state  of  probation  be  as  well  undergone  with- 
out adding  to  the  catalogue  of  human  sufferings  ?  "But  we  must 
pause  !  "  What !  must  the  bowels  of  Great  Britain  be  torn  out  — 
her  best  blood  spilled — her  treasure  wasted — that  you  may  make 
an  experiment?  Put  yourselves  —  oh  1  that  you  would  put  your- 
selves in  the  field  of  battle,  and  learn  to  judge  of  the  sort  of 
horrors  that  you  excite !  In  former  wars  a  man  might,  at  least, 
have  some  feeling,  some  interest,  that  served  to  balance  in  his  mind 
the  impressions  which  a  scene  of  carnage  and  of  death  must  inflict. 

If  a  man  had  been  present  at  the  batde  of  Blenheim,  for 
instance,  and  had  inquired  the  motive  of  the  battle,  there  was  not  a 
soldier  engaged  who  could  not  have  satisfied  his  curiosity,  and  even, 
perhaps,  allayed  his  feelings.  They  were  fighting,  they  knew,  to 
repress  the  uncontrolled  ambition  of  the  Grand  Monarch.  But  if  a 
man  were  present  now  at  a  field  of  slaughter,  and  were  to  inquire 
for  what  they  were  fighting — "  Fighting !  "  would  be  the  answer ; 
"  they  are  not  fighting ;  they  are  pausing." 

"  Why  is  that  man  expiring  ?  Why  is  that  other  writhing  with 
agony?  What  means  this  implacable  fury?"  The  answer  must 
be  :  ''  You  are  quite  wrong,  sir  ;  you  deceive  yourself  —  they  are  not 
fighting — do  not  disturb  them  —  they  are  merely  pausing!  This 
man  is  not  expiring  with  agony — that  man  is  not  dead  —  he  is 
only  pausing!  Lord  help  you,  sir!  they  are  not  angry  with  one 
another ;  they  have  no  cause  of  quarrel ;  but  their  country  thinks 
that  there  should  be  a  pause.  All  that  you  see,  sir,  is  nothing  like 
fighting — there  is  no  harm,  nor  cruelty,  nor  bloodshed  in  it  what- 
ever ;  it  is  nothing  more  than  a  political  pause  !  It  is  merely  to  try 
an  experiment  —  to  see  whether  Bonaparte  will  not  behave  himself 


CHARLES  JAMES   FOX  47 

better  than  heretofore ;  and  in  the  meantime  we  have  agreed  to  a 
pause  in  pure  friendship ! "  And  is  this  the  way,  sir,  you  are  to 
show  yourselves  the  advocates  of  order?  You  take  up  a  system 
calculated  to  uncivilize  the  world  —  to  destroy  order  —  to  trample 
on  religion  —  to  stifle  in  the  heart,  not  merely  the  generosity  of 
noble  sentiment,  but  the  affections  of  social  nature ;  and  in  the 
prosecution  of  this  system  you  spread  terror  and  devastation  all 
around  you. 

Sir,  I  have  done.  I  have  told  you  my  opinion.  I  think  you 
ought  to  have  given  a  civil,  clear  and  explicit  answer  to  the  over- 
ture which  was  fairly  and  handsomely  made  you.  If  you  were 
desirous  that  the  negotiation  should  have  included  all  your  allies, 
as  the  means  of  bringing  about  a  general  peace,  you  should  have 
told  Bonaparte  so.  But  I  believe  you  were  afraid  of  his  agreeing 
to  the  proposal. 


WILLIAM   PITT,  THE  YOUNGER 


William  Pitt,  the  Younger,  second  son  of  Lord  Chatham 
(1759-1806),  prepared  for  college  under  private  tutors.  He 
was  not  a  rugged  boy  and  it  was  thought  wise  not  to  send 

him  to  the  public  schools. 
At 


fourteen  he  entered 
Cambridge  University  where 
he  remained  seven  years  un- 
til he  had  taken  his  master's 
degree.  He  inherited  rare 
qualities  of  mind  and  had 
lofty  ambitions,  even  as  a 
child.  At  the  age  of  seven, 
when  his  father  was  made 
an  earl  and  given  a  seat  in 
the  House  of  Lords,  the  boy 
exclaimed,  "  Then  I  must 
take  his  place  in  the  House 
of  Commons."  So  mature 
was  he  in  thought  and  as- 
piration that  it  was  said  by 
Windom,  "  Pitt  never  was  a  boy."  His  every  effort  seemed 
bent  toward  the  one  end  of  fitting  himself  for  parliamentary 
work  in  order  to  take  his  father's  place  in  Commons.  A  de- 
voted student,  he  applied  himself  to  his  tasks  to  the  full 
extent  of  his  physical  strength. 

Pitt  became  one  of  the  best  classical  scholars  of  the  day. 
At  the  time  he  entered  college  he  was  well  acquainted  with 
Greek  and  Latin,  but  by  the  time  he  finished  his  course  there 

4S 


WILLIAM   PITT,  THE  YOUNGER  49 

was  scarcely  a  Greek  or  Latin  author  of  eminence  that  he  had 
not  read.  He  was  also  fond  of  mathematics,  which  he  after- 
wards declared  was  a  source  of  great  profit  in  the  development 
of  his  logical  faculties. 

In  English  literature  his  favorite  studies  were  Shakespeare 
and  Milton.  He  committed  to  memory  the  choicest  passages 
from  both  of  these  poets,  and  was  especially  fond  of  reciting 
the  sublime  and  measured  passages  of  *' Paradise  Lost." 

The  early  training  which  bore  strongest  on  his  future  career 
in  Commons  and  added  to  his  readiness  to  meet  the  attacks  of 
the  opposition  was  his  unabating  zeal  and  constancy  in  the  ap- 
plication of  the  principles  of  logic.  He  declared  that  he  ''  owed 
his  power  to  the  study  of  Aristode's  Logic  in  early  life,  and  to 
the  habit  of  applying  his  principles  to  all  the  discussions  he 
met  with  in  the  works  he  read  and  the  debates  he  witnessed." 
Dr.  Prettyman,  his  tutor,  says,  ''  It  was  a  favorite  employ- 
ment with  him  to  compare  opposite  speeches  on  the  same 
subject,  and  to  examine  how  each  speaker  managed  his  own 
side  of  the  argument. "  He  carried  this  training  still  farther 
and  went  and  sat  in  Parliament  and  heard  the  best  speakers, 
that  he  might  catch  their  excellences  and  refute  or  strengthen 
their  arguments.  This  accounts  for  his  marvelous  dexterity 
in  calling  up  and  answering  long  trains  of  argument  in  par- 
liamentary debates. 

Like  his  father,  Pitt  studied  the  Bible  for  its  imagery,  and 
read  and  reread  Dr.  Barrow's  sermons  for  clearness  of  diction. 
It  was  this  which  developed  in  him  fluency,  majesty  of  diction, 
and  correct  expression.  According  to  Lord  Rosebery:  "His 
father  would  make  the  boy  of  an  evening  read  freely  into 
English  the  passages  which  he  had  construed  with  his  tutor 
in  the  morning.  It  was  to  these  lessons  that  he  always  attrib- 
uted his  ready  copiousness  of  language.  What  was  scarcely 
less  valuable,  Lord  Chatham,  who  made  it  a  point  to  give  daily 


50  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

instruction  and  readings  from  the  Bible  to  his  children,  en- 
couraged his  son  to  talk  with  him  without  reserve  on  every 
subject ;  so  that  the  boy,  who  seemed  to  have  returned  the 
boundless  affection  with  which  his  father  regarded  him,  was 
in  close  and  constant  communication  with  one  of  the  first 
minds  of  the  age."  Not  only  was  the  course  of  his  thought 
thus  molded  and  his  fluency  and  richness  of  language  acquired, 
but  his  study  of  turns  of  expression  and  English  idioms  gave 
him  a  force  and  elegance  of  style  equaled  by  few.  It  was  high 
praise  of  a  political  opponent  who  said:  ''Nothing  seemed 
wanting,  yet  there  was  no  redundancy.  He  seemed  by  intuition 
to  hit  the  precise  point,  when,  having  attained  his  object  as 
far  as  eloquence  could  effect  it,  he  sat  down. "  Fox  could  not 
withhold  his  admiration,  for  he  says  "that  although  he  himself 
was  never  in  want  of  words,  Pitt  was  never  without  the  best 
word  possible."  Lord  Rosebery  says  :  "His  diction  was  his 
strongest  point.  His  power  of  clear,  logical  statement,  so  built 
up  as  to  be  an  argument  in  itself,  was  another.  And  as  a  weapon 
too  often  used,  he  had  an  endless  command  of  freezing,  bitter, 
scornful  sarcasm,  'which  tortured  to  madness,'  exercising  a  sort 
of  fascination  of  terror  over  Erskine  and  Sheridan." 

Pitt  toiled  still  harder  than  did  his  father  to  perfect  his 
method  of  speaking.  He  made  it  a  point  to  declaim  regularly, 
under  his  father's  direction,  passages  from  the  poets  and 
orators.  This  gave  him  not  only  a  full,  voluminous  voice,  but 
one  that  was  flexible  and  penetrating,  which,  with  his  clear 
enunciation,  reached  every  part  of  the  House  of  Commons. 
He  believed  that  the  vocal  instrument  to  be  played  upon 
effectively  must  first  be  attuned — must  be  given  depth,  reso- 
nance, and  strength.  He  therefore  set  to  work  with  all  dili- 
gence to  build  up  such  an  instrument,  and  he  succeeded,  for 
we  are  told  that  his  majestic  tones  and  stately,  sonorous 
sentences  were  the  delight  of  the  House. 


WILLIAM   PITT,  THE  YOUNGER  5  I 

In  figure  he  was  tall  and  slender,  in  bearing  dignified,  in 
gesture  animated,  but  not  always  graceful.  His  face  was  full 
of  sweetness  and  charm,  with  eyes  that  held  attention  by  their 
brightness.  The  great  point  in  his  delivery  was  his  calm 
sincerity,  his  cool-headedness,  and  clear  discernment.  Eng- 
land had  never  known  so  young  a  statesman  with  so  old  a 
head.  There  was  a  kind  of  glamour  in  his  youthfulness  which 
was  attractive  to  the  multitude  and  gave  him  greater  influence 
than  could  have  been  wielded  by  an  older  man  equally  wise. 

Next  to  Fox  he  was  the  greatest  debater  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary'period.  His  first  speech  in  Parliament  at  the  age  of 
twenty-two,  one  month  after  he  took  his  seat,  made  it  evident 
that  a  new  power  had  entered  Commons,  In  1781,  when 
Burke  brought  forward  a  bill  for  economic  reform,  Pitt  was 
called  on  by  his  friends  to  speak  in  favor  of  it.  At  first  he 
declined  to  do  so,  but  when  repeatedly  called  for,  he  rose  and, 
with  entire  self-command,  took  up  the  argument  with  all  the 
skill  of  a  practiced  legislator,  added  to  an  elegance  of  diction 
rarely  surpassed,  and  a  fervor  and  richness  of  thought  that 
fairly  captivated  the  House.  The  effect  was  electrical.  His 
friends  gathered  around  him  and  offered  congratulations,  and 
Burke  said  when  he  grasped  his  hand,  ''You  are  not  merely 
a  chip  of  the  old  block  but  the  old  block  itself." 

His  readiness  in  debate  enabled  him  to  withstand  the  on- 
slaughts of  the  combined  force  of  Burke,  P'ox,  and  Sheridan 
in  those  memorable  parliamentary  battles.  "Above  and  be- 
yond all,"  says  Lord  Rosebery,  "was  the  fact  that  Pitt,  young, 
unaided,  and  alone,  held  his  own  with  the  great  leaders  allied 
against  him.  Exposed  to  the  heaviest  artillery  that  wit  and 
fury  and  eloquence  could  bring  to  bear,  he  was  never  swayed 
or  silenced."  When  Parliament  was  dissolved  and  the  elec- 
tions were  held,  Pitt  was  returned  with  a  triumphant  majority 
over  the  coalition. 


52  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

The  supremacy  of  Pitt  was  due  to  his  strength  of  character 
and  his  honesty  and  sincerity  of  purpose.  Not  timid  or 
wavering  in  mind,  "unallured  by  dissipation  and  unswayed 
by  pleasure,"  he  kept  his  course  in  spite  of  prejudice  and 
party  clamor.  The  people  gave  him  their  confidence  because 
he  was  constant  and  patriotic,  because  he  turned  not  aside 
from  what  he  conceived  to  be  the  path  of  duty.  He  spoke 
from  conviction,  not  from  love  of  display.  He  was  able,  elo- 
quent, dignified,  and  discrete.  "He  had  the  courage,  the 
weight,  the  standing,  the  speaking  power,"  and  his  talents, 
though  superior  and  splendid,  never  made  him  forgetful  of 
his  allegiance  to  a  kind  Providence. 

His  oratory  was  of  a  different  type  from  that  of  his  father. 
Chatham  was  probably  the  greater  genius,  but  not  the  stronger 
mind.  ''While  the  one  swayed  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen 
by  the  vehemence  of  his  own  feelings,  the  other  guided  their 
wills  and  formed  their  purposes  by  the  intense  energy  of  his 
understanding."  The  father  was  rapid,  sublime,  electric  ;  the 
son  quiet,  chaste,  placid.  The  one  awed  into  acquiescence, 
the  other  argued  into  conviction.  The  father  was  an  orator 
by  nature,  the  son  by  art.  Pitt  was  superior  to  his  father  as 
a  debater,  was  simpler,  not  so  imaginative,  or  so  fond  of 
display,  had  a  better-trained  mind  and  appealed  more  to  men's 
understanding.  His  speeches  were  packed  with  facts,  and 
often  state  secrets  were  used  with  telling  effect  on  his  audi- 
ences. His  single  purpose  in  speaking  was  the  highest  good 
to  the  greatest  number.  Wilberforce  declares  that  ''every 
other  consideration  was  absorbed  in  one  great  ruling  passion 
—  the  love  of  his  country";  and  Lord  Rosebery  closes  his 
sketch  of  Pitt  with  these  words:  "There  may  have  been 
men  both  abler  and  greater  than  he,  though  it  is  not  easy  to 
cite  them  ;  but  in  all  history  there  is  no  more  patriotic  spirit, 
none  more  intrepid,  and  none  more  pure." 


WILLIAM   PITT,  THE  YOUNGER  53 

The  coming  of  this  orator  has  been  compared  to  the  rising 
of  the  tropical  sun..  At  the  age  of  twenty-two,  in  the  proudest 
era  of  EngHsh  eloquence,  he  spoke  with  the  wisdom  of  a 
mature  statesman,  and  placed  himself  at  once  in  the  front 
rank  of  the  world's  great  orators. 

Not  many  of  Pitt's  speeches  have  been  preserved  in  full. 
The  greatest  of  them  were  carefully  written  out  by  himself 
after  they  were  delivered,  and  are  as  follows  : 

1.  ''The  Abolition  of  the  Slave  Trade,"  delivered  in  Com- 
mons, April  2,  1792. 

2.  "The  Rupture  of  Negotiations  with  France,"  delivered 
in  Commons,  November  10,  1797. 

3.  "  Refusal  to  negotiate  with  Bonaparte,"  delivered  in 
Commons,  February  3,  1800. 


ABOLITION  OF  THE  SLAVE  TRADE 

Delivered  in  the  House  of  Commons,  April  2,  1792.  Over  five  hundred 
petitions  against  the  slave  trade  had  that  year  been  laid  before  Parliament. 
Mr.  Wilberforce  moved  for  its  immediate  suppression  and  supported  his 
motion  with  a  powerful  speech.  Mr.  Dundas  opposed  the  measure  with  a 
speech  in  favor  of  gradual  rather  than  immediate  abolition.  Mr.  Pitt  joined 
in  the  debate  in  a  speech  from  which  the  following  extracts  are  taken,  "  one 
of  the  ablest  pieces  of  mingled  argument  and  eloquence  which  he  ever 
produced." 

I.    IMMEDIATE  ABOLITION 

The  point  now  in  dispute  is  as  to  the  period  of  time  at  which 
the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade  ought  to  take  place.  I  therefore 
congratulate  this  House,  the  country,  and  the  world,  that  this  great 
point  is  gained ;  that  we  may  now  consider  this  trade  as  having 
received  its  condemnation ;  that  its  sentence  is  sealed ;  that  this 
curse  of  mankind  is  seen  by  the  House  in  its  true  light ;  and  that 
the  greatest  stigma  on  our  national  character  which  ever  yet  existed 
is  about  to  be  removed  ;  and,  sir,  which  is  still  more  important,  that 


54  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

mankind,  I  trust,  in  general,  are  now  likely  to  be  delivered  from 
the  greatest  practical  evil  that  ever  afflicted  the  human  race ;  from 
the  severest  and  most  extensive  calamity  recorded  in  the  history 
of  the  world ! 

If  they  can  show  that  their  proposition  of  a  gradual  abolition  is 
more  likely  than  ours  to  secure  the  object  which  we  have  in  view ; 
that  by  proceeding  gradually  we  shall  arrive  more  speedily  at  our 
end,  and  attain  it  with  more  certainty,  than  by  a  direct  vote  imme- 
diately to  abolish  ;  if  they  can  show  to  the  satisfaction  both  of  myself 
and  the  committee,  that  our  proposition  has  more  the  appearance 
of  a  speedy  abolition  than  the  reality  of  it,  undoubtedly  they  will 
in  this  case  make  a  convert  of  me,  and  my  honorable  friend  who 
moved  the  question.  They  will  make  a  convert  of  every  man  among 
us  who  looks  to  this  as  a  question  not  to  be  determined  by  theo- 
retical principles  or  enthusiastic  feelings,  but  considers  the  practica- 
bility of  the  measure,  aiming  simply  to  effect  his  object  in  the  shortest 
time  and  in  the  surest  possible  manner. 

One  of  my  right  honorable  friends  has  stated  that  an  act  passed 
here  for  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade  would  not  secure  its  aboli- 
tion. Now,  sir,  I  should  be  glad  to  know  why  an  act  of  the  British 
Legislature,  enforced  by  all  those  sanctions  which  we  have  undoubt- 
edly the  power  and  the  right  to  apply,  is  not  to  be  effectual ;  at 
least,  as  to  every  material  purpose.  Will  not  the  executive  power 
have  the  same  appointment  of  the  officers  and  the  courts  of  judi- 
cature, by  which  all  the  causes  relating  to  this  subject  must  be 
tried,  that  it  has  in  other  cases  ?  Will  there  not  be  the  same  system 
of  law  by  which  we  now  maintain  a  monopoly  of  commerce  ?  If 
the  same  law,  sir,  be  applied  to  the  prohibition  of  the  slave  trade 
which  is  applied  in  the  case  of  other  contraband  commerce,  with 
all  the  same  means  of  the  country  to  back  it,  I  am  at  a  loss  to 
know  why  the  actual  and  total  abolition  is  not  as  likely  to  be 
effected  in  this  way  as  by  any  plan  or  project  of  my  honorable 
friends  for  bringing  about  a  gradual  termination  of  it. 

The  argument  of  expediency,  in  my  opinion,  like  every  other 
argument  in  this  disquisition,  will  not  justify  the  continuance  of  the 


WILLIAM   PITT,  THE  YOUNGER  55 

slave  trade  for  one  unnecessary  hour.  Supposing  it  to  be  in  our 
power,  which  I  have  shown  it  is,  to  enforce  the  prohibition  from 
this  present  time,  the  expediency  of  doing  it  is  to  me  so  clear  that, 
if  I  went  on  this  principle  alone,  I  should  not  feel  a  moment's 
hesitation.  What  is  the  argument  of  expediency  stated  on  the  other 
side  ?  It  is  doubted  whether  the  deaths  and  births  in  the  islands 
are,  as  yet,  so  nearly  equal  as  to  insure  the  keeping-up  of  a  sufficient 
stock  of  laborers.  In  answer  to  this,  I  took  the  liberty  of  mentioning 
in  a  former  year  what  appeared  to  me  to  be  the  state  of  population 
at  that  time.  My  observations  were  the  clear,  simple,  and  obvious 
result  of  a  careful  examination  which  I  made  into  this  subject,  and 
any  gentleman  who  will  take  the  same  pains  may  arrive  at  the 
same  degree  of  satisfaction. 

Do  the  slaves  diminish  in  numbers  ?  It  can  be  nothing  but  ill 
treatment  that  causes  the  diminution.  This  ill  treatment  the  aboli- 
tion must  and  will  restrain.  In  this  case,  therefore,  we  ought  to 
vote  for  the  abolition.  On  the  other  hand,  do  you  choose  to  say 
that  the  slaves  clearly  increase  in  numbers  ?  Then  you  want  no 
importations,  and,  in  this  case  also,  you  may  safely  vote  for  the 
abolition.  Or,  if  you  choose  to  say,  as  the  third  and  only  other  case 
which  can  be  put,  and  which  perhaps  is  the  nearest  to  the  truth, 
that  the  population  is  nearly  stationary,  and  the  treatment  neither 
so  bad  nor  so  good  as  it  might  be ;  then  surely,  sir,  it  will  not  be 
denied  that  this,  of  all  others,  is,  on  each  of  the  two  grounds,  the 
proper  period  for  stopping  farther  supplies ;  for  your  population, 
which  you  own  is  already  stationary,  will  thus  be  made  undoubtedly 
to  increase. 

The  House,  1  am  sure,  will  easily  believe  it  is  no  small  satis- 
faction to  me,  that  among  the  many  arguments  for  prohibiting  the 
slave  trade  which  crowd  upon  my  mind,  the  security  of  our  West 
India  possessions  against  internal  commotions,  as  well  as  foreign 
enemies,  is  among  the  most  prominent  and  most  forcible.  And 
here  let  me  apply  to  my  two  right  honorable  friends,  and  ask  them, 
whether  in  this  part  of  the  argument  they  do  not  see  reason  for 
immediate  abolition  .?   Why  should  you  any  longer  import  into  those 


56  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

countries  that  which  is  the  very  seed  of  insurrection  and  rebellion  ? 
Why  should  you  persist  in  introducing  those  latent  principles  of 
conflagration,  which,  if  they  should  once  burst  forth,  may  annihilate 
in  a  single  day  the  industry  of  a  hundred  years  ?  Why  will  you 
subject  yourselves,  with  open  eyes,  to  the  evident  and  imminent 
risk  of  a  calamity  which  may  throw  you  back  a  whole  century  in 
your  profits,  in  your  cultivation,  in  your  progress  to  the  emanci- 
pation of  your  slaves  ;  and,  disappointing  at  once  every  one  of  those 
golden  expectations,  may  retard,  not  only  the  accomplishment  of 
that  happy  system  which  I  have  attempted  to  describe,  but  may 
cut  off  even  your  opportunity  of  taking  any  one  introductory  step  ? 
Let  us  begin  from  this  time !  Let  us  not  commit  these  important 
interests  to  any  further  hazard  !  Let  us  prosecute  this  great  object 
from  this  very  hour !  Let  us  vote  that  the  abolition  of  the  slave 
trade  shall  be  immediate,  and  not  left  to  I  know  not  what  future 
time  or  contingency !  Will  my  right  honorable  friends  answer  for 
the  safety  of  the  islands  during  any  imaginable  intervening  period  ? 
Or  do  they  think  that  any  little  advantages  of  the  kind  which  they 
state,  can  have  any  weight  in  that  scale  of  expediency  in  which  this 
great  question  ought  undoubtedly  to  be  tried  ? 

On  the  present  occasion  the  most  powerful  considerations  call 
upon  us  to  abolish  the  slave  trade ;  and  if  we  refuse  to  attend  to 
them  on  the  alleged  ground  of  pledged  faith  and  contract,  we  shall 
depart  as  widely  from  the  practice  of  Parliament  as  from  the  path 
of  moral  duty. 

The  result  of  all  I  have  said  is,  that  there  exists  no  impediment, 
no  obstacle,  no  shadow  of  reasonable  objection  on  the  ground  of 
pledged  faith,  or  even  on  that  of  national  expediency,  to  the  abo- 
lition of  this  trade.  On  the  contrary,  all  the  arguments  drawn  from 
those  sources  plead  for  it,  and  they  plead  much  more  loudly,  and 
much  jnore  strongly  in  every  part  of  the  question,  for  an  immediate 
than  for  a  gradual  abolition. 


WILLIAM   PITT,  THE  YOUNGER  5/ 

II.    INCURABLE  INJUSTICE 

Pitt  exposed  the  enormities  of  the  slave  trade,  which  had  made  the 
African  coast  the  scene  of  intolerable  cruelty  and  bloodshed,  disgracing 
the  character  of  the  Christian  nations  engaged  in  the  traffic. 

But  now,  sir,  I  come  to  Africa.  That  is  the  ground  on  which  I 
rest,  and  here  it  is  that  I  say  my  right  honorable  friends  do  not 
carry  their  principles  to  their  full  extent.  Why  ought  the  slave 
trade  to  be  abolished  ?  Because  it  is  incurable  injustice  !  How  much 
stronger,  then,  is  the  argument  for  immediate  than  for  gradual 
abolition !  By  allowing  it  to  continue  even  for  one  hour,  do  not 
my  right  honorable  friends  weaken,  do  not  they  desert,  their  own 
argument  of  its  injustice  ?  If  on  the  ground  of  injustice  it  ought 
to  be  abolished  at  last,  why  ought  it  not  now  ?  Why  is  injustice  to 
be  suffered  to  remain  for  a  single  hour  ?  From  what  I  hear  with- 
out doors  it  is  evident  that  there  is  a  general  conviction  entertained 
of  its  being  far  from  just,  and  from  that  very  conviction  of  its  in- 
justice some  men  have  been  led,  I  fear,  to  the  supposition  that  the 
slave  trade  never  could  have  been  permitted  to  begin,  but  from 
some  strong  and  irresistible  necessity ;  a  necessity,  however,  which, 
if  it  was  fancied  to  exist  at  first,  I  have  shown  cannot  be  thought 
by  any  man  whatever  to  exist  at  present.  This  plea  of  necessity, 
thus  presumed,  and  presumed,  as  I  suspect,  from  the  circumstance 
of  injustice  itself,  has  caused  a  sort  of  acquiescence  in  the  continu- 
ance of  this  evil.  Men  have  been  led  to  place  it  in  the  rank  of 
those  necessary  evils  which  are  supposed  to  be  the  lot  of  human 
creatures,  and  to  be  permitted  to  fall  upon  some  countries  or  in- 
dividuals, rather  than  upon  others,  by  that  Being  whose  ways  are 
inscrutable  to  us,  and  whose  dispensations,  it  is  conceived,  we  ought 
not  to  look  into.  The  origin  of  evil  is,  indeed,  a  subject  beyond 
the  reach  of  the  human  understanding ;  and  the  permission  of  it 
by  the  Supreme  Being  is  a  subject  into  which  it  belongs  not  to  us 
to  inquire.  But  where  the  evil  in  question  is  a  moral  evil  which  a 
man  can  scrutinize,  and  where  that  moral  evil  has  its  origin  with 
ourselves,  let  us  not  imagine  that  we  can  clear  our  consciences  by 


58  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

this  general,  not  to  say  irreligious  and  impious  way  of  laying  aside 
the  question.  If  we  reflect  at  all  on  this  subject,  we  must  see  that 
every  necessary  evil  supposes  that  some  other  and  greater  evil 
would  be  incurred  were  it  removed.  I  therefore  desire  to  ask,  what 
can  be  that  greater  evil  which  can  be  stated  to  overbalance  the  one 
in  question  ?  I  know  of  no  evil  that  ever  has  existed,  nor  can 
imagine  any  evil  to  exist,  worse  than  the  tearing  of  eighty  thousand 
persons  annually  from  their  native  land,  by  a  combination  of  the 
most  civilized  nations  in  the  most  enlightened  quarter  of  the  globe  ; 
but  more  especially  by  that  nation  which  calls  herself  the  most  free 
and  the  most  happy  of  them  all.  Even  if  these  miserable  beings 
were  proved  guilty  of  every  crime  before  you  take  them  off,  of 
which  however  not  a  single  proof  is  adduced,  ought  we  to  take  upon 
ourselves  the  office  of  executioners  ?  And  even  if  we  condescend 
so  far,  still  can  we  be  justified  in  taking  them,  unless  we  have  clear 
proof  that  they  are  criminals  ? 

Think  of  eighty  thousand  persons  carried  away  out  of  their  coun- 
try, by  we  know  not  what  means  ;  for  crimes  imputed  ;  for  light  or 
inconsiderable  faults ;  for  debt,  perhaps ;  for  the  crime  of  witch- 
craft ;  or  a  thousand  other  weak  and  scandalous  pretexts ;  besides 
all  the  fraud  and  kidnaping,  the  villainies  and  perfidy,  by  which  the 
slave  trade  is  supplied.  Reflect  on  these  eighty  thousand  persons 
thus  annually  taken  off  !  There  is  something  in  the  horror  of  it  that 
surpasses  all  the  bounds  of  imagination.  Admitting  that  there  exists 
in  Africa  something  like  to  courts  of  justice  ;  yet  what  an  office  of 
humiliation  and  meanness  is  it  in  us  to  take  upon  ourselves  to  carry 
into  execution  the  partial,  the  cruel,  iniquitous  sentences  of  such 
courts,  as  if  we  also  were  strangers  to  all  religion  and  to  the  first 
principles  of  justice. 

Thus,  sir,  has  the  perversion  of  British  commerce  carried  misery 
instead  of  happiness  to  one  whole  quarter  of  the  globe.  False  to 
the  very  principles  of  trade,  misguided  in  our  policy,  and  unmindful 
of  our  duty,  what  astonishing — I  had  almost  said,  what  irreparable 
mischief,  have  we  brought  upon  that  continent]  How  shall  we 
hope  to  obtain,  if  it  be  possible,  forgiveness  from  Heaven  for  those 


WILLIAM   PITT,  THE  YOUNGER  59 

enormous  evils  we  have  committed,  if  we  refuse  to  make  use  of 
tliose  means  which  the  mercy  of  Providence  hath  still  reserved  to 
us,  for  wiping  away  the  guilt  and  shame  with  which  we  are  now 
covered.  If  we  refuse  even  this  degree  of  compensation  ;  if,  know- 
ing the  miseries  we  have  caused,  we  refuse  even  now  to  put  a  stop 
to  them,  how  greatly  aggravated  will  be  the  guilt  of  Great  Britain ! 
and  what  a  blot  will  these  transactions  forever  be  on  the  history  of 
this  country !  Shall  we,  then,  delay  to  repair  these  injuries,  and  to 
begin  rendering  justice  to  Africa  ?  Shall  we  not  count  the  days  and 
hours  that  are  suffered  to  intervene,  and  to  delay  the  accomplish- 
ment of  such  a  work  ?  Reflect  what  an  immense  object  is  before 
you ;  what  an  object  for  a  nation  to  have  in  view,  and  to  have  a 
prospect,  under  the  favor  of  Providence,  of  being  now  permitted  to 
attain  !  I  think  the  House  will  agree  with  me  in  cherishing  the 
ardent  wish  to  enter  without  delay  upon  the  measures  necessary 
for  these  great  ends ;  and  I  am  sure  that  the  immediate  abolition 
of  the  slave  trade  is  the  first,  the  principal,  the  most  indispensable 
act  of  policy,  of  duty,  and  of  justice,  that  the  Legislature  of  this 
country  has  to  take,  if  it  is  indeed  their  wish  to  secure  those  impor- 
tant objects  to  which  I  have  alluded,  and  which  we  are  bound  to 
pursue  by  the  most  solemn  obligations. 

Grieved  am  I  to  think  that  there  should  be  a  single  person  in 
this  country,  much  more  that  there  should  be  a  single  member  in 
the  British  Parliament,  who  can  look  on  the  present  dark,  unculti- 
vated, and  uncivilized  state  of  that  continent  as  a  ground  for  con- 
tinuing the  slave  trade;  as  a  ground  not  only  for  refusing  to 
attempt  the  improvement  of  Africa,  but  even  for  hindering  and 
intercepting  every  ray  of  light  which  might  otherwise  break  in  upon 
her ;  as  a  ground  for  refusing  to  her  the  common  chance  and  the 
common  means  with  which  other  nations  have  been  blessed,  of 
emerging  from  their  native  barbarism. 


6o  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

III.    ATONEMENT  FOR  INJUSTICE 

Pitt  painted  a  glowing  picture  of  the  prospect  of  African  civilization,  de- 
claring that  this  was  a  leading  object  of  the  measure  proposed.  He  called 
attention  to  the  fact  that  England  herself  was  once  polluted  by  human  sac- 
rifices and  was  a  mart  of  slaves.  "Great  numbers  were  exported  like  cattle 
from  the  British  coast  and  were  to  be  seen  exposed  for  sale  in  the  Roman 
market." 

We,  sir,  have  long  since  emerged  from  barbarism.  We  have 
almost  forgotten  that  we  were  once  barbarians.  We  are  now  raised 
to  a  situation  which  exhibits  a  striking  contrast  to  every  circum- 
stance by  which  a  Roman  might  have  characterized  us,  and  by 
which  we  now  characterize  Africa.  There  is,  indeed,  one  thing 
wanting  to  complete  the  contrast,  and  to  clear  us  altogether  from 
the  imputation  of  acting  even  to  this  hour  a  barbarous  traffic  in 
slaves ;  we  continue  it  even  yet,  in  spite  of  all  our  great  and  unde- 
niable pretensions  to  civilization.  We  were  once  as  obscure  among 
the  nations  of  the  earth,  as  savage  in  our  manners,  as  debased  in 
our  morals,  as  degraded  in  our  understandings,  as  these  unhappy 
Africans  are  at  present.  But  in  the  lapse  of  a  long  series  of  years, 
by  a  progression  slow,  and  for  a  time  almost  imperceptible,  we  have 
become  rich  in  a  variety  of  acquirements,  favored  above  measure 
in  the  gifts  of  Providence,  unrivaled  in  commerce,  preeminent  in 
arts,  foremost  in  the  pursuits  of  philosophy  and  science,  and  estab- 
lished in  all  the  blessings  of  civil  society.  We  are  in  the  possession 
of  peace,  of  happiness,  and  of  liberty.  We  are  under  the  guidance 
of  a  mild  and  beneficent  religion ;  and  we  are  protected  by  impar- 
tial laws  and  the  purest  administration  of  justice.  We  are  living 
under  a  system  of  government  which  our  own  happy  experience 
leads  us  to  pronounce  the  best  and  wisest  which  has  ever  yet  been 
framed ;  a  system  which  has  become  the  admiration  of  the  world. 
From  all  these  blessings  we  must  forever  have  been  shut  out,  had 
there  been  any  truth  in  those  principles  which  some  gentlemen 
have  not  hesitated  to  lay  down  as  applicable  to  the  case  of  Africa. 
Had  those  principles  been  true,  we  ourselves  had  languished  to 
this   hour   in   that   miserable   state  of   ignorance,   brutality,  and 


WILLIAM   PITT,  THE  YOUNGER  6l 

degradation,  in  which  history  proves  our  ancestry  to  have  been 
immersed.  Had  other  nations  adopted  these  principles  in  their 
conduct  toward  us,  had  other  nations  applied  to  Great  Britain  the 
reasoning  which  some  of  the  senators  of  this  very  island  now  ap- 
ply to  Africa ;  ages  might  have  passed  without  our  emerging  from 
barbarism ;  and  we  who  are  enjoying  the  blessings  of  British  civili- 
zation, of  British  laws,  and  British  liberty,  might,  at  this  hour,  have 
been  little  superior,  either  in  morals,  in  knowledge,  or  refinement, 
to  the  rude  inhabitants  of  the  coast  of  Guinea. 

If,  then,  we  feel  that  this  perpetual  confinement  in  the  fetters 
of  brutal  ignorance  would  have  been  the  greatest  calamity  which 
could  have  befallen  us;  if  we  view  with  gratitude  and  exultation 
the  contrast  between  the  peculiar  blessings  we  enjoy,  and  the 
wretchedness  of  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Britain ;  if  we  shudder 
to  think  of  the  misery  which  would  still  have  overwhelmed  us  had 
Great  Britain  continued  to  the  present  times  to  be  a  mart  for  slaves 
to  the  more  civilized  nations  of  the  world,  through  some  cruel  policy 
of  theirs,  God  forbid  that  we  should  any  longer  subject  Africa  to 
the  same  dreadful  scourge,  and  preclude  the  light  of  knowledge, 
which  has  reached  every  other  quarter  of  the  globe,  from  having 
access  to  her  coasts. 

I  trust  we  shall  no  longer  continue  this  commerce,  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  every  improvement  on  that  wide  continent ;  and  shall  not 
consider  ourselves  as  conferring  too  great  a  boon,  in  restoring  its 
inhabitants  to  the  rank  of  human  beings.  I  trust  we  shall  not  think 
ourselves  too  liberal,  if,  by  abolishing  the  slave  trade,  we  give  them 
the  same  common  chance  of  civilization  with  other  parts  of  the 
world,  and  that  we  shall  now  allow  to  Africa  the  opportunity,  the 
hope,  the  prospect  of  attaining  to  the  same  blessings  which  we  our- 
selves, through  the  favorable  dispensations  of  Divine  Providence, 
have  been  permitted,  at  a  much  more  early  period,  to  enjoy.  If  we 
listen  to  the  voice  of  reason  and  duty,  and  pursue  this  night  the  line 
of  conduct  which  they  prescribe,  some  of  us  may  live  to  see  a  re- 
verse of  that  picture  from  which  we  now  turn  our  eyes  with  shame 
and  regret.    We  may  live  to  behold  the  natives  of  Africa  engaged 


62  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

in  the  calm  occupations  of  industry,  in  the  pursuits  of  a  just  and 
legitimate  commerce.  We  may  behold  the  beams  of  science  and 
philosophy  breaking  in  upon  their  land,  which  at  some  happy 
period  in  still  later  times  may  blaze  with  full  luster;  and  joining 
their  influence  to  that  of  pure  religion,  may  illuminate  and  invigor- 
ate the  most  distant  extremities  of  that  immense  continent.  Then 
may  we  hope  that  even  Africa,  though  last  of  all  the  quarters  of 
the  globe,  shall  enjoy  at  length,  in  the  evening  of  her  days,  those 
blessings  which  have  descended  so  plentifully  upon  us  in  a  much 
earlier  period  of  the  world.  Then,  also,  will  Europe,  participating 
in  her  improvement  and  prosperity,  receive  an  ample  recompense 
for  the  tardy  kindness  (if  kindness  it  can  be  called)  of  no  longer 
hindering  that  continent  from  extricating  herself  out  of  the  dark- 
ness which,  in  other  more  fortunate  regions,  has  been  so  miich 
more  speedily  dispelled. 

It  is  in  this  view,  sir,  —  it  is  in  atonement  for  our  long  and  cruel 
injustice  toward  Africa,  —  that  the  measure  proposed  by  my  honor- 
able friend  most  forcibly  recommends  itself  to  my  mind.  The  great 
and  happy  change  to  be  expected  in  the  state  of  her  inhabitants 
is,  of  all  the  various  and  important  benefits  of  the  abolition,  in  my 
estimation,  incomparably  the  most  extensive  and  important. 

I  shall  oppose  to  the  utmost  every  proposition  which  in  any  way 
may  tend  either  to  prevent,  or  even  to  postpone  for  an  hour,  the 
total  abolition  of  the  slave  trade  —  a  measure  which,  on  all  the  vari- 
ous grounds  which  I  have  stated,  we  are  bound,  by  the  most  press- 
ing and  indispensable  duty,  to  adopt. 


THOMAS  ERSKINE 


Thomas  Erskine  (i 750-1 823),  unlike  the  great  orators 
contemporaneous  with  him,  had  Httle  scholastic  training.  His 
farriily,  though  of  the  nobility,  were  in  straitened  circum- 
stances. After  completing 
the  high-school  course  in  his 
native  city  of  Edinburgh  he 
spent  a  few  months  at  St. 
Andrews  University,  though 
not  as  a  regular  matriculate. 
He  had  little  Latin  and 
scarcely  more  of  Greek  than 
the  alphabet. 

At  the  age  of  fourteen, 
when  most  boys  of  rank  were 
in  college,  he  gave  up  his 
course  and  entered  the  king's 
navy,  where  he  remained  four 
years.  The  great  redeeming 
feature  of  these  years  was  the 
fact  that  he  gained  not  only 
physically  from  active  service  at  sea  but  also  mentally  from 
extensive  travel  which  is  the  best  substitute  for  diligent  study 
in  the  schools. 

On  his  return  from  sea  he  determined  to  give  up  the 
navy  and  devote  himself  to  the  study  of  English  literature. 
For  two  years  he  pursued  this  work  with  great  ardor.  Large 
portions  of  Shakespeare  and  Milton  were  committed  to  mem- 
ory.   The  many  speeches  in  the  play  of  "Julius  Caesar"  and 

63 


64  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

in  the  second  book  of  ''  Paradise  Lost "  were  his  deUght  and 
were  declaimed  over  and  over. 

At  the  age  of  twenty  Erskine  purchased  a  commission  in 
the  army.  While  there  he  had  ample  time  to  devote  to  the 
study  of  English,  which  afterwards,  in  his  speeches,  was 
freer  from  admixture  with  other  tongues  than  that  of  any  of 
his  great  contemporaries.  He  obtained  such  a  mastery  of 
Milton  and  Shakespeare  and  their  spirit  that  it  is  said. he 
could  carry  on  a  respectable  conversation  in  quotations.  On 
this  point  Dr.  Johnson  remarks,  that  ''he  who  would  excel  in 
eloquence  must  give  his  days  and  nights  to  Shakespeare  and 
Milton."  Erskine  devoted  two  years  to  this  kind  of  study, 
which  gave  him  a  rich  fund  of  ideas  and  the  best  of  English 
from  which  to  choose  his  eloquent  words. 

Not  only  was  Erskine  versed  in  the  literature  of  our 
language,  but  he  became  an  earnest  student  of  men.  His 
experience  in  the  army  and  navy,  gained  from  travel  and  in 
mingling  with  so  many  and  so  great  a  variety  of  human 
beings,  gave  him  the  best  opportunity  to  know  men — how  to 
take  them,  how  to  deal  with  them,  how  to  influence  them,  and 
the  effect  of  reason  and  passion  upon  them.  Like  Patrick 
Henry,  Erskine  made  men  his  life  study.  His  love  of  fun  and 
frolic,  his  wit,  his  humor,  his  good  nature  and  companionship, 
drew  men  to  him.  This  mingling  with  men  and  knowing 
them  added  greatly  to  his  ability  in  after  years  as  a  pleader 
before  the  bar,  and  aroused,  in  a  no  less  degree,  that  keen 
perception  of  the  varying  moods  of  his  public  audiences. 

As  a  result  of  his  travel,  his  acquaintance  with  literature, 
and  his  knowledge  of  men,  Erskine  became  a  brilliant  conver- 
sationist. BosweU  spoke  of  him  as  one  "who  talked  with  a 
vivacity,  a  fluency,  and  a  precision  which  attracted  particular 
attention."  This  gift  of  eloquent  conversation  was  the  basis 
of  his  public  speaking. 


THOMAS  ERSKINE  65 

On  his  return  to  London  an  incident  occurred  which  was 
destined  to  change  his  whole  Hfe  work.  He  happened  into 
the  courts  at  Westminster,  where  he  met  his  old-time  friend 
and  benefactor,  Lord  Mansfield,  the  most  learned  judge  on 
the  English  bench,  who  was  presiding  on  this  occasion.  The 
judge  showed  him  marked  courtesy  and  even  invited  him  to 
a  seat  with  him  on  the  bench.  During  the  progress  of  the 
trial,  in  which  the  ablest  attorneys  of  England  were  engaged. 
Lord  Mansfield  explained  the  points  of  the  case.  Erskine 
listened  with  deep  interest.  But  when  they  were  through  he 
began  to  reflect  on  their  method  of  presenting  the  case,  and 
found,  in  spite  of  his  ignorance  of  the  law,  that  some  points 
were  not  made  as  strong  as  he  thought  they  might  have  been. 
That  day  he  dined  with  Mansfield,  and  during  the  course  of 
their  meal  Erskine  asked  the  judge  if  he  thought  it  possible  for 
him  to  become  a  lawyer.  The  judge  neither  encouraged  nor 
discouraged  him.  But  the  old  ambition  of  Erskine's  boyhood, 
and  the  earnest  desire  then  expressed  by  his  father  that  he 
should  become  a  professional  man,  now  crowded  upon  him. 
He  could  not  be  rid  of  it,  and  although  the  prospect  was 
gloomy,  considering  the  support  necessary  for  his  wife  and 
children,  he  determined  to  enter  upon  the  study  of  law.  He 
took  up  his  residence  at  Cambridge,  and  after  three  years  he 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  and  began  his  career  as  a  lawyer  at 
the  age  of  twenty-eight. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  record  the  circumstances  of  his  first 
law  case.  We  choose  rather  to  speak  of  his  elements  of 
power.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  that  although  the  court  was 
against  him,  yet  his  earnestness  and  ability  in  presenting  the 
case  and  urging  the  principles  involved,  won  him  the  ver- 
dict. ''  Never,"  says  Goodrich,  "did  a  single  case  so  completely 
make  the  fortune  of  an  individual.  Erskine  entered  West- 
minster Hall  that  morning  not  only  in  extreme  poverty  but 


66  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

with  no  reasonable  prospect  of  an  adequate  subsistence  for 
years.  He  left  it  a  rich  man.  It  is  said  that  while  retiring 
from  the  hall  he  received  thirty  retainers  from  attorneys  who 
were  present.  Not  only  was  his  ambition  gratified,  but  the 
comfort  and  independence  of  those  whose  happiness  he  had 
staked  on  his  success  as  a  lawyer  were  secured  for  life.  Some 
one  asked  him  how  he  dared  to  face  Lord  Mansfield  so  boldly 
on  a  point  in  which  he  was  clearly  out  of  order,  when  he 
beautifully  replied,  '  I  thought  of  my  children  as  plucking  me 
by  the  robe  and  saying,  ''Now,  father,  is  the  time  to  get  us 
bread."  '  " 

Erskine's  style  is  distinguished  for  its  purity  and  strength. 
There  is  no  straining  after  effect.  It  is  chaste,  polished,  har- 
monious. Not  being  a  classical  student,  he  acquired  his 
knowledge  of  the  language  through  his  study  of  the  English 
authors.  His  extensive  vocabulary,  his  choice  of  words,  his 
varied  imagery,  his  copious  and  animated  description  came 
largely  through  his  intimate  acquaintance  with  Shakespeare, 
Milton,  and  the  Bible.  Few  of  the  great  orators  had  a  style 
freer  from  admixture  with  the  Latin  and  the  Greek.  In  this 
particular  John  Bright's  style  most  resembles  that  of  Erskine. 
Both  men  were  simple  and  rhythmical  in  style  and  seldom 
indulged  in  figures  of  speech  ;  both  believed  that  when  there 
was  a  choice  between  a  word  of  Latin  or  Greek  origin  and 
an  Anglo-Saxon  word,  the  latter  was  invariably  the  stronger. 

Unity  and  strength  characterized  Erskine's  every  utterance. 
His  speech  hinged  around  a  great  central  principle,  and  each 
step  was  felt  to  bear  on  that  point.  His  reasoning  was  com- 
pact and  powerful,  and  the  order  in  which  he  set  forth  his 
arguments  showed  a  mastery  of  the  human  mind.  "Like  a 
skillful  general,"  says  Mathews,  "he  massed  his  forces  on  one 
point  of  assault.  Instead  of  frittering  away  the  strength  of 
his  reasonings  by  arranging  them  under  many  different  heads, 


THOMAS  ERSKINE  6/ 

he  proposed  a  great  leading  principle  to  which  all  his  efforts 
were  referable  and  subsidiary.  As  the  rills  and  streams  of  a 
valley  meet  and  mingle  into  one  torrent,  so  the  arguments, 
facts,  and  illustrations  in  one  of  his  speeches  were  made  to 
rush  together  into  a  common  channel,  and  strike  with  tremen- 
dous impact  on  the  mind." 

Not  only  did  Erskine  possess  a  splendid  style,  but  the 
greatest  force  of  his  oratory  lay  in  his  powerful  delivery.  In 
personal  appearance  he  was  of  medium  height,  slender,  and 
finely  proportioned.  He  combined  elegance  of  figure  with 
fascinating  manners,  and  was  the  kindest  and  most  genial  of 
men.  Though  of  a  nervous  temperament  and  rapid  in  his 
movements,  he  was  dignified  and  graceful  in  his  bearing  and 
gesture.  His  features  were  regular  and  handsome.  The  most 
striking  part  of  his  countenance  was  his  eye,  which,  when  he 
was  speaking,  illumined  with  the  glow  of  his  genius.  He 
studied  his  jury  intently,  man  by  man,  to  note  the  effect  of 
his  every  word.  According  to  Lord  Brougham,  "Juries  have 
declared  that  they  felt  it  impossible  to  remove  their  looks  from 
him  when  he  had  riveted  and  fascinated  them  by  his  first 
glance."  His  voice  was  clear  and  penetrating,  at  times  verg- 
ing on  to  sharpness  and  shrillness,  but  it  was  usually  full 
and  ample,  far-reaching  in  quality,  and  often  mellow  and  sweet. 
Though  not  so  powerful  and  resonant  an  organ  as  that  of 
Chatham  or  Clay  or  O' Council,  yet  it  was  agreeable,  and 
capable  of  the  most  brilliant  flights  of  eloquence. 

The  effect  of  his  speaking  was  little  short  of  marvelous. 
Lord  Campbell  calls  his  first  speech  in  defense  of  Captain 
Bailey  the  "most  wonderful  forensic  effort  which  we  have  in 
our  annals."  The  immediate  effect  was  not  to  clear  Captain 
Bailey  but  to  make  his  own  fortune. 

His  demeanor  toward  the  court  was  always  considerate 
and  respectful.    He  was  uniformly  courteous  to  the  opposing 


68  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

counsel,  and  his  power  over  juries  was  unrivaled.  He  im- 
pressed and  swayed  the  courts  at  will.  His  devotion  to  his 
client  was  complete,  and  he  had  great  power  of  application  to 
the  mastery  of  the  case  in  hand.  His  intensity  of  purpose,  his 
lively  statement  of  the  facts  and  the  law,  his  great  earnestness, 
his  nimble  wit  and  repartee,  combined  to  make  him  the  most 
fascinating  of  advocates.  When  he  rose  to  speak  there  was 
no  emptying  of  benches,  no  yawning  of  judges,  no  going  to 
sleep  of  jurymen  ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  every  available  nook 
and  corner  was  occupied  by  people  eager  to  listen  to  the 
varied  and  fascinating  periods,  the  touching  language,  and 
the  fervid  eloquence  of  the  great  lawyer. 

Erskine's  parliamentary  career  was  by  no  means  so  brilliant 
as  his  work  as  a  lawyer.  His  manner  was  better  suited  to  the 
courts  than  to  the  legislature.  At  any  other  period  than  that 
which  boasted  of  Pitt,  Fox,  and  Burke,  who  outshone  him  in 
Parliament,  Erskine  would  have  made  his  mark ;  but  he 
lacked  political  information.  He  was  out  of  his  element 
when  not  dealing  with  legal  matters.  Living  in  that  period 
of  great  orators  whose  reputation  had  been  made  before  he 
entered  Parliament,  and  conscious  of  the  fact  that  he  must 
sustain  his  reputation  as  a  great  advocate,  Erskine  felt  that 
he  was  overshadowed  and  out  of  his  element.  This  feeling 
was  heightened  by  Pitt's  attitude  toward  him  when  Erskine 
rose  to  make  his  maiden  speech  in  the  House.  Pitt  sat  with 
pen  and  paper  in  hand  ready  to  take  notes  for  reply.  He 
wrote  but  litde  and  gradually  relaxed  his  attention.  Penally, 
with  the  utmost  contempt,  he  thrust  the  pen  through  the  paper 
and  threw  them  both  to  the  floor.  Erskine  could  not  recover 
from  this  expression  of  disdain ;  "his  voice  faltered,  he 
struggled  through  the  remainder  of  his  speech,  and  sank  into 
his  seat  dispirited."  But  while  Erskine  was  not  acknowledged 
to  be  a  leader  in  parliamentary  affairs,  no  one  denies  him  the 


THOMAS  ERSKINE  69 

foremost  rank  among  forensic  orators.  As  Charles  Kendall 
Adams  has  said  :  "He  was  identified  with  the  establishment 
of  certain  great  principles  that  lie  at  the  foundation  of  modern 
social  life — the  rights  of  juries,  the  liberty  of  the  press,  and 
the  law  of  treason."  According  to  James  L.  High,  "There 
have  been  profounder  jurists,  there  have  been  abler  judges, 
there  have  been  wiser  statesmen,  but  as  a  forensic  orator  he 
stands  without  a  rival  and  without  a  peer." 

The  following  are  the  most  celebrated  of  his  great  speeches : 
the  "  Defense  of  Bailey,"  the  "  Defense  of  Hardy,"  the 
"  Defense  of  Stockdale,"  the  "  Defense  of  Hadfield,"  the 
"  Defense  of  Lord  George  Gordon,"  the  "  Defense  of  Paine," 
and  the  "Rights  of  Juries." 


DEFENSE  OF  STOCKDALE 

This  speech  was  delivered  before  the  Court  of  King's  Bench,  December 
9,  1789.  Stockdale  was  a  London  publisher,  who  issued  a  pamphlet  regard- 
ing the  trial  of  Warren  Hastings,  in  which  the  author,  a  Scottish  clergyman, 
reflects  severely  on  the  House  of  Commons.  It  was  moved  by  a  member 
of  Commons  that  the  attorney-general  be  directed  to  prosecute  Stockdale 
for  libel  on  the  Commons. 

I.    DISTORTION  OF  THE  CONTEXT 

Gentlemen,  to  enable  you  to  form  a  true  judgment  of  the  mean- 
ing of  this  book  and  of  the  intention  of  its  author,  and  to  expose 
the  miserable  juggle  that  is  played  off,  out  of  one  hundred  and  ten 
pages  only  forty  or  fifty  lines  are  culled  from  different  parts  of  it, 
and  artfully  put  together  so  as  to  rear  up  a  libel,  out  of  a  false  con- 
text, by  a  supposed  connection  of  sentences  with  one  another,  which 
are  not  only  entirely  independent,  but  which,  when  compared  with 
their  antecedents,  bear  a  totally  different  construction.  In  this 
manner  the  greatest  works  upon  government,  the  most  excellent 
books  of   science,   the    sacred    Scriptures    themselves,   might  be 


70  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

distorted  into  libels  by  forsaking  the  general  context  and  hanging 
a  meaning  upon  selected  parts.  Thus,  "  The  fool  hath  said  in  his 
heart,  there  is  no  God  " ;  the  Attorney-General,  on  the  principle  of 
the  present  proceeding  against  this  pamphlet,  might  indict  the 
publisher  of  the  Bible  for  blasphemously  denying  the  existence  of 
heaven,  in  printing  "There  is  no  God,"  for  these  words  alone, 
without  the  context,  would  be  selected  by  the  informant ;  and  the 
Bible,  like  this  book,  would  be  understood  to  meet  it.  Nor  could 
the  defendant,  in  such  a  case,  have  any  possible  defense,  unless  the 
jury  were  permitted  to  see,  by  the  book  itself,  that  the  verse,  instead 
of  denying  the  existence  of  the  Divinity,  only  imputed  that  imagi- 
nation to  a  fool. 

I  mean  to  contend  that  if  this  book  is  read  with  only  common 
attention,  the  whole  scope  of  it  will  be  discovered  to  be  this  :  that, 
in  the  opinion  of  the  author,  Mr.  Hastings  had  been  accused  of 
maladministration  in  India,  from  the  heat  and  spleen  of  political 
divisions  in  Parliament,  and  not  from  any  zeal  for  national  honor 
or  justice ;  that  the  impeachment  did  not  originate  from  govern- 
ment, but  from  a  faction  banded  against  it,  which,  by  misrepresen- 
tation and  violence,  had  fastened  it  on  an  unwilling  House  of 
Commons ;  that,  prepossessed  with  this  sentiment,  the  author  pur- 
sues the  charges,  article  by  article,  and  enters  into  a  warm  and  ani- 
mated vindication  of  Mr.  Hastings,  by  regular  answers  to  each  of 
them  ;  and  that,  as  far  as  the  mind  and  soul  of  a  man  can  be  visible, 
I  might  almost  say  embodied  in  his  writings,  his  intention  throughout 
the  whole  volume  appears  to  have  been  to  charge  with  injustice  the 
private  accusers  of  Mr.  Hastings  and  not  the  House  of  Commons 
as  a  body.  This  will  be  found  to  be  the  palpable  scope  of  the  book  ; 
and  no  man  who  can  read  English,  and  who,  at  the  same  time,  will 
have  the  candor  and  common  sense  to  take  up  his  impression  from 
what  is  written  in  it,  can  possibly  understand  it  otherwise. 

Gendemen,  b'efore  I  venture  to  lay  the  book  before  you  it 
must  be  yet  further  remembered  that  the  trial  of  Mr.  Hastings 
at  the  bar  of  the  Lords  had  actually  commenced  long  before 
its  publication. 


THOMAS   ERSKINE  71 

There  the  most  august  and  striking  spectacle  was  daily  exhibited 
which  the  world  ever  witnessed.  A  vast  stage  of  justice  was  erected, 
awful  from  its  high  authority,  splendid  from  its  illustrious  dignity, 
venerable  from  the  learning  and  wisdom  of  its  judges,  captivating 
and  affecting  from  the  mighty  concourse  of  all  ranks  and  conditions 
which  daily  flocked  into  it,  as  into  a  theater  of  pleasure.  There, 
when  the  whole  public  mind  was  at  once  awed  and  softened  to  the 
impression  of  every  human  affection,  there  appeared,  day  after  day, 
one  after  another,  men  of  the  most  powerful  and  exalted  talents, 
eclipsed  with  their  accusing  eloquence  the  most  boasted  harangues 
of  antiquity  ;  rousing  the  pride  of  national  resentment  by  the  boldest 
invectives  against  broken  faith  and  violated  treaties,  and  shaking 
the  bosom  with  alternate  pity  and  horror  by  the  most  glowing 
pictures  of  insulted  nature  and  humanity;  ever  animated  and 
energetic,  from  the  love  of  fame,  which  is  the  inherent  passion  of 
genius ;  firm  and  indefatigable,  from  a  strong  prepossession  of  the 
justice  of  their  cause. 

Gentlemen,  the  question  you  have,  therefore,  to  try  upon  all  this 
matter  is  extremely  simple.  It  is  neither  more  nor  less  than  this : 
At  a  time  when  the  charges  against  Mr.  Hastings  were,  by  the  im- 
plied consent  of  the  Commons,  in  every  hand  and  on  every  table ; 
when,  by  their  managers,  the  lightning  of  eloquence  was  incessantly 
consuming  him,  and  flashing  in  the  eyes  of  the  public ;  when  every 
man  was  with  perfect  impunity  saying,  and  writing,  and  publishing, 
just  what  he  pleased  of  the  supposed  plunderer  and  devastator  of 
nations,  would  it  have  been  criminal  in  Mr.  Hastings  himself  to 
have  reminded  the  public  that  he  was  a  native  of  this  free  land, 
entitled  to  the  common  protection  of  her  justice?  If  Mr.  Hastings 
himself  could  have  stood  justified  or  excused  in  your  eyes  for 
publishing  this  volume  in  his  own  defense,  the  author,  if  he  wrote 
it  to  defend  him,  must  stand  equally  excused  and  justified ;  and  if 
the  author  be  justified,  the  publisher  cannot  be  criminal,  unless  you 
have  evidence  that  it  was  published  by  him  with  a  different  spirit 
and  intention  from  those  in  which  it  was  written.  Could  Mr. 
Hastings  have  been  condemned  to  infamy  for  writing  this  book  ? 


72  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

Gentlemen,  I  tremble  with  indignation,  to  be  driven  to  put  such 
a  question  in  England.  Shall  it  be  endured  that  a  subject  of  this 
country  may  be  impeached  by  the  Commons  for  the  transactions 
of  twenty  years,  that  the  accusation  shall  spread  as  wide  as  the 
region  of  letters,  that  the  accused  shall  stand  day  after  day,  and 
year  after  year,  as  a  spectacle  before  the  public,  which  shall  be  kept 
in  a  perpetual  state  of  inflammation  against  him  ;  yet  that  he  shall 
not,  without  the  severest  penalties,  be  permitted  to  submit  anything 
to  the  judgment  of  mankind  in  his  defense  ?  If  this  be  law  (which 
is  for  you  to-day  to  decide),  such  a  man  has  no  trial !  That  great 
hall,  built  by  our  fathers  for  English  justice,  is  no  longer  a  court, 
but  an  altar ;  and  an  Englishman,  instead  of  being  judged  in  it  by 
God  and  his  country,  is  a  victim  and  a  sacrifice ! 

If  you  think,  gentlemen,  that  this  common  duty  of  self-preserva- 
tion to  the  accused  himself,  which  nature  writes  as  a  law  upon  the 
hearts  of  even  savages  and  brutes,  is  nevertheless  too  high  a  privi- 
lege to  be  enjoyed  by  an  impeached  and  suffering  Englishman ;  or 
if  you  think  it  beyond  the  offices  of  humanity  and  justice,  when 
brought  home  to  the  hand  of  a  brother  or  a  friend,  you  will  say  so 
by  your  verdict  of  guilty  ;  the  decision  will  then  be  yours  ;  and  the 
consolation  mine,  that  I  have  labored  to  avert  it.  A  very  small  part 
of  the  misery  which  will  follow  from  it  is  likely  to  light  upon  me ; 
the  rest  will  be  divided  among  yourselves  and  your  children. 

II.  LIBEL  NOT  DESIGNED 

Erskine  here  sets  forth  the  principles  involved  in  the  law  of  libel.  He 
shows  that  if  the  spirit  and  intention  of  the  author  are  good,  and  that  it  is 
his  design  to  discuss  the  measure  and  not  bring  contempt  upon  the  govern- 
ment, any  hasty  or  heated  single  expression  should  be  dealt  with  indul- 
gently by  the  courts. 

I  ask,  as  counsel  for  Mr.  Stockdale,  whether,  when  a  great  state 
criminal  is  brought  for  justice  at  an  immense  expense  to  the  public, 
accused  of  the  most  oppressive  cruelties,  and  charged  with  the 
robbery  of  princes  and  the  destruction  of  nations,  it  is  not  open  to 
any  one  to  ask.  Who  are  his  accusers  ?   What  are  the  sources  and 


THOMAS   ERSKINE  73 

the  authorities  of  these  shocking  complaints  ?  Where  are  the  am- 
bassadors or  memorials  of  those  princes  whose  revenues  he  has 
plundered  ?  Where  are  the  witnesses  for  those  unhappy  men  in 
whose  persons  the  rights  of  humanity  have  been  violated  ?  How 
deeply  buried  is  the  blood  of  the  innocent,  that  it  does  not  rise  up 
in  retributive  judgment  to  confound  the  guilty  !  These,  surely,  are 
questions  which,  when  a  fellow  citizen  is  upon  a  long,  painful,  and 
expensive  trial,  humanity  has  a  right  to  propose ;  which  the  plain 
sense  of  the  most  unlettered  man  may  be  expected  to  dictate,  and 
which  all  history  must  provoke  from  the  more  enlightened.  When 
Cicero  impeached  Verres  before  the  great  tribunal  of  Rome,  of 
similar  cruelties  and  depredations  in  her  provinces,  the  Roman 
people  were  not  left  to  such  inquiries.  All  Sicily  surrounded  the 
Forum,  demanding  justice  upon  her  plunderer  and  spoiler,  with 
tears  and  imprecations.  It  was  not  by  the  eloquence  of  the  orator, 
but  by  the  cries  and  tears  of  the  miserable,  that  Cicero  prevailed 
in  that  illustrious  cause.  Verres  fled  from  the  oaths  of  his  accusers 
and  their  witnesses,  and  not  from  the  voice  of  Tully.  To  preserve 
the  fame  of  his  eloquence,  he  composed  his  five  celebrated  speeches, 
but  they  were  never  delivered  against  the  criminal,  because  he  had 
fled  from  the  city,  appalled  by  the  sight  of  the  persecuted  and 
the  oppressed.  It  may  be  said  that  the  cases  of  Sicily  and  India 
are  widely  different;  perhaps  they  may  be;  whether  they  are  or 
not,  is  foreign  to  my  purpose.  I  am  not  bound  to  deny  the  possi- 
bility of  answers  to  such  questions  ;  I  am  only  vindicating  the  right 
to  ask  them. 

Gendemen,  I  am  ready  to  admit  that  his  sentiments  might  have 
been  expressed  in  language  more  reserved  and  guarded ;  but  you  will 
look  to  the  sentiment  itself,  rather  than  to  its  dress  —  to  the  mind 
of  the  writer,  and  not  to  the  bluntness  with  which  he  may  happen 
to  express  it.  It  is  obviously  the  language  of  a  warm  man,  engaged 
in  the  honest  defense  of  his  friend,  and  who  is  brought  to  what  he 
thinks  a  just  conclusion  in  argument,  which,  perhaps,  becomes  of- 
fensive in  proportion  to  its  truth.  Truth  is  undoubtedly  no  warrant 
for  writing  what  is  reproachful  of  any  private  man.    If  a  member 


74  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

of  society  lives  within  the  law,  then,  if  he  offends,  it  is  against  God 
alone,  and  man  has  nothing  to  do  with  him ;  and  if  he  transgress 
the  laws,  the  libeler  should  arraign  himself  before  them,  instead  of 
presuming  to  try  him  himself.  But  as  to  writings  on  general  subjects, 
which  are  not  charged  as  an  infringement  on  the  rights  of  individ- 
uals, but  as  of  a  seditious  tendency,  it  is  far  otherwise.  When,  in 
the  progress  either  of  legislation  or  of  high  national  justice  in  Par- 
liament, they  who  are  amenable  to  no  law  are  supposed  to  have 
adopted,  through  mistake  or  error,  a  principle  which,  if  drawn  into 
precedent,  might  be  dangerous  to  the  public,  I  shall  not  admit  it  to 
be  libel  in  the  course  of  a  legal  and  bona  fide  publication,  to  state 
that  such  a  principle  had  in  fact  been  adopted.  The  people  of 
England  are  not  to  be  kept  in  the  dark  touching  the  proceedings 
of  their  own  representatives. 

An  impeachment  for  an  error  in  judgment  is  not  consistent  with 
the  theory  or  the  practice  of  the  English  government.  I  say,  with- 
out reserve,  that  an  impeachment  for  an  error  in  judgment  is  con- 
trary to  the  whole  spirit  of  English  criminal  justice,  which,  though 
not  binding  on  the  House  of  Commons,  ought  to  be  a  guide  to  its 
proceedings.  I  say  that  the  extraordinary  jurisdiction  of  impeach- 
ment ought  never  to  be  assumed  to  expose  error  or  to  scourge 
misfortune,  but  to  hold  up  a  terrible  example  to  corruption  and 
willful  abuse  of  authority  by  extra  legal  pains.  If  public  men  are 
always  punished  with  due  severity  when  the  source  of  their  mis- 
conduct appears  to  have  been  selfishly  corrupt  and  criminal,  the 
public  can  never  suffer  when  their  errors  are  treated  with  gentle- 
ness. From  such  protection  to  the  magistrate,  no  man  can  think 
lightly  of  the  charge  of  magistracy  itself,  when  he  sees,  by  the 
language  of  the  saving  judgment,  that  the  only  title  to  it  is  an  honest 
and  zealous  intention.  If  the  people  of  England  were  to  call  upon 
every  man  in  this  impeaching  House  of  Commons  who  had  given 
his  voice  on  public  questions,  or  acted  in  authority,  civil  or  military, 
to  answer  for  the  issues  of  our  councils  and  our  wars,  and  if  honest 
single  intentions  for  the  public  service  were  refused  as  answers  to 
impeachments,  we  should  have  many  relations  to  mourn  for,  and 


THOMAS  ERSKINE  75 

many  friends  to  deplore.  For  my  own  part,  gentlemen,  I  feel,  I 
hope,  for  my  country  as  much  as  any  man  that  inhabits  it ;  but  I 
would  rather  see  it  fall,  and  be  buried  in  its  ruins,  than  lend  my 
voice  to  wound  any  minister  or  other  responsible  person,  however 
unfortunate,  who  had  fairly  followed  the  lights  of  his  understanding 
and  the  dictates  of  his  conscience  for  their  preservation. 

Gentlemen,  this  is  no  theory  of  mine  ;  it  is  the  language  of  Eng- 
lish law,  and  the  protection  which  it  affords  to  every  man  in  office, 
from  the  highest  to  the  lowest  trust  of  government.  In  no  one 
instance  that  can  be  named,  foreign  or  domestic,  did  the  Court  of 
King's  Bench  ever  interpose  its  extraordinary  jurisdiction,  by  infor- 
mation, against  any  magistrate  for  the  widest  departure  from  the 
rule  of  his  duty,  without  the  plainest  and  clearest  proof  of  corruption. 
God  forbid  that  a  magistrate  should  suffer  from  any  error  in  judg- 
ment, if  his  purpose  was  honestly  to  discharge  his  trust.  We  can- 
not stop  the  ordinary  course  of  justice;  but  wherever  the  court 
has  a  discretion,  such  a  magistrate  is  entitled  to  its  protection,  I 
appeal  to  the  noble  judge,  and  to  every  man  who  hears  me,  for  the 
truth  and  universality  of  this  position. 


III.    LIBERTY  OF  THE   PRESS 

Erskine  shows  that  there  was  no  desire  on  the  part  of  the  author  to  vil- 
ify Commons.  The  singleness  of  his  intention  was  the  defense  of  Hastings. 
In  only  two  or  three  selected  parts  was  unfavorable  mention  made  of  Com- 
mons. Erskine  shows  the  fallacy  of  holding  up  these  detached  sentences 
as  libelous,  but  concealing  the  tenor  and  intent  of  the  book.  Under  such 
restraint  authors  of  independence  would  not  venture  to  write  "  without  an 
attorney  at  one  elbow  and  a  counsel  at  the  other. " 

The  unhappy  people  of  India,  feeble  and  effeminate  as  they  are 
from  the  softness  of  their  climate,  and  subdued  and  broken  as  they 
have  been  by  the  knavery  and  strength  of  civilization,  still  occa- 
sionally start  up  in  all  the  vigor  and  intelligence  of  insulted  nature. 
To  be  governed  at  all,  they  must  be  governed  with  a  rod  of  iron ; 
and  our  empire  in  the  East  would,  long  since,  have  been  lost  to 
Great  Britain,  if  civil  skill  and  military  prowess  had  not  united  their 


'j6  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

efforts  to  support  an  authority  —  which  Heaven  never  gave  —  by 
means  which  it  never  can  sanction. 

Gentlemen,  I  have  not  been  considering  this  subject  through 
the  cold  medium  of  books,  but  have  been  speaking  of  man  and 
his  nature,  and  of  human  dominion,  from  what  I  have  seen  of  them 
myself  among  reluctant  nations  submitting  to  our  authority.  I 
know  what  they  feel,  and  how  such  feelings  can  alone  be  repressed. 
I  have  heard  them  in  my  youth  from  a  naked  savage,  in  the  in- 
dignant character  of  a  prince  surrounded  by  his  subjects,  address- 
ing the  governor  of  a  British  colony,  holding  a  bundle  of  sticks  in 
his  hand,  as  the  notes  of  his  unlettered  eloquence.  "Who  is  it,  " 
said  the  jealous  ruler  over  the  desert,  encroached  upon  by  the  rest- 
less foot  of  English  adventure  —  "  who  is  it  that  causes  this  river 
to  rise  in  the  high  mountains  and  to  empty  itself  into  the  ocean  t 
Who  is  it  that  causes  to  blow  the  loud  winds  of  winter,  and  that 
calms  them  again  in  summer .?  Who  is  it  that  rears  up  the  shade 
of  those  lofty  forests,  and  blasts  them  with  the  quick  lightning  at 
his  pleasure  ?  The  same  Being  who  gave  to  you  a  country  on  the 
other  side  of  the  waters,  and  gave  ours  to  us ;  and  by  this  title  we 
will  defend  it,"  said  the  warrior,  throwing  down  his  tomahawk 
upon  the  ground  and  raising  the  war  sound  of  his  nation.  These 
are  the  feelings  of  subjugated  man  all  round  the  globe  ;  and,  depend 
upon  it,  nothing  but  fear  will  control  where  it  is  vain  to  look  for 
affection. 

What  will  they  do  for  you  when  surrounded  by  two  hundred  thou- 
sand men  with  artillery,  cavalry,  and  elephants,  calling  upon  you 
for  their  dominions  which  you  have  robbed  them  of  ?  If  England, 
from  a  lust  of  ambition  and  dominion,  will  insist  on  maintaining 
despotic  rule  over  distant  and  hostile  nations,  beyond  all  comparison 
more  numerous  and  extended  than  herself,  and  gives  commission 
to  her  viceroys  to  govern  them  with  no  other  instructions  than  to 
preserve  them,  and  to  secure  permanently  their  revenues,  with 
what  color  of  consistency  or  reason  can  she  place  herself  in  the 
moral  chair  and  affect  to  be  shocked  at  the  execution  of  her  own 
orders  ?    If  you  are  firmly  persuaded  of  the  singleness  and  purity 


THOMAS  ERSKINE  -j-j 

of  the  author's  intentions,  you  are  not  bound  to  subject  him  to 
infamy,  because,  in  the  zealous  career  of  a  just  and  animated  compo- 
sition, he  happens  to  have  tripped  with  his  pen  into  an  intemperate 
expression  in  one  or  two  instances  of  a  long  work.  If  this  severe 
duty  were  binding  on  your  consciences,  the  liberty  of  the  press 
would  be  an  empty  sound,  and  no  man  could  venture  to  write  on 
any  subject,  however  pure  his  purpose,  without  an  attorney  at  one 
elbow  and  a  counsel  at  the  other. 

From  minds  thus  subdued  by  the  terrors  of  punishment,  there 
could  issue  no  works  of  genius  to  expand  the  empire  of  human 
reason,  nor  any  masterly  compositions  on  the  general  nature  of  gov- 
ernment, by  the  help  of  which  the  great  commonwealths  of  man- 
kind have  founded  their  establishments ;  much  less  any  of  those 
useful  applications  of  them  to  critical  conjunctures,  by  which,  from 
time  to  time,  our  own  Constitution,  by  the  exertion  of  patriot  citi- 
zens, has  been  brought  back  to  its  standard.  Under  such  terrors 
all  the  great  lights  of  science  and  civilization  must  be  extinguished  ; 
for  men  cannot  communicate  their  free  thoughts  to  one  another 
with  a  lash  held  over  their  heads.  Liberty  herself,  the  last  and 
best  gift  of  God  to  his  creatures,  must  be  taken  just  as  she  is ;  you 
might  pare  her  down  into  bashful  regularity,  and  shape  her  into 
a  perfect  model  of  severe,  scrupulous  law,  but  she  would  then  be 
Liberty  no  longer ;  and  you  must  be  content  to  die  under  the  lash 
of  this  inexorable  justice  which  you  have  exchanged  for  the  banners 
of  freedom. 


RICHARD   BRINSLEY  SHERIDAN 


Richard  Brinsley  Sheridan  (1751-1816),  the  great  Irish 
orator,  was  a  native  of  Dublin.  His  father,  Thomas  Sheri- 
dan, was  the  author  of  the  first  pronouncing  dictionary  of 

the  EngHsh  language  ;  he 
was  also  a  celebrated  actor 
of  his  day,  the  foremost 
teacher  of  elocution,  and 
the  author  of  a  much-used 
book  on  the  principles  of 
that  art. 

Young  Sheridan  was 
given  good  opportunities 
for  an  education.  He  was 
sent  to  Harrow  for  his  col- 
legiate training,  an  insti- 
tution under  the  direction 
of  the  celebrated  Dr.  Parr. 
He  gave  little  evidence  of 
aptitude  for  learning.  On 
the  contrary,  he  was  indo- 
lent and  careless  in  his 
work.  But  his  early  association  with  his  father  about  the 
stage  had  interested  him  greatly  in  dramatic  composition. 
He  therefore  began  his  theatrical  writing  early.  His  produc- 
tions were  dramatic  and  humorous  in  character.  This  exercise 
laid  the  foundation  of  and  stimulated  his  talent  for  dramatic 
writing,  which  culminated  in  a  fev^i  years  in  four  great  dramas, 
which  have  given  him  an  exalted  place  among  literary  men. 

78 


RICHARD  BRINSLEY  SHERIDAN  79 

An  early  marriage,  which  necessitated  his  providing  a  home, 
induced  him  to  seek  a  Hvehhood  in  authorship,  in  which  he 
had  already  gained  distinction  in  school.  His  knowledge  of 
stagecraft,  his  ability  to  discover  the  distinguishing  points  of 
characters  and  set  them  forth  fittingly  in  their -relation  to  each 
other,  made  him  the  greatest  playwright  of  his  day  ;  for  in 
the  next  few  years  he  produced  successively  ''  The  Rivals," 
"The  School  for  Scandal,"  "The  Critic,"  and  "The  Duenna," 
all  celebrated  for  their  excellence,  the  first  two  ranking  among 
the  highest  and  best  of  English  comedies. 

But  Sheridan  was  not  content  to  rest  on  his  laurels  won 
in  literature'.  He  chose  another  field,  the  field  of  oratory. 
His  training  had  already  aided  him  greatly  toward  this  end. 
He  had  been  thoroughly  drilled  in  speaking  and  acting  by 
his  father,  had  cultivated  enunciation  and  declamation,  had 
taken  part  in  theatricals,  had  listened  to  Garrick  and  others 
of  the  best  actors  of  the  time,  and  had  followed  their  vocal 
methods  ;  he  had  acquired  the  art  of  directness  in  speaking, 
which  the  actor  learns  so  well  in  addressing  others  face  to 
face  ;  he  had  cultivated  the  art  of  written  expression,  had 
developed  his  already  wonderful  imagination,  in  his  plays 
and  other  writings,  until  he  had  acquired  fascinating  methods 
of  speaking  and  had  begun  to  use  his  conspicuous  natural 
gifts  in  public  addresses.  Through  the  influence  of  friends 
he  was  nominated  for  a  seat  in  Commons  and  was  successful 
in  the  election.  It  was  not  long  after  he  entered  Parliament 
before  opportunity  offered  itself  for  a  speech.  Knowing  of 
his  literary  fame,  the  members  listened  with  entire  respect 
but  not  with  admiration.  Indeed  his  speech  was  a  distinct 
disappointment  to  his  friends.  One  of  them  declared  to  him 
afterwards:  "  I  don't  think  this  is  your  line.  You  had  better 
have  stuck  to  your  former  pursuits."  But  Sheridan  uttered 
his  famous  reply,  "  It  is  in  me  and  it  shall  come  out  of  me." 


8o  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

His  sense  of  shame  at  his  partial  failure  stimulated  him  to 
renewed  effort,  and  he  set  to  work  with  great  diligence  to  in- 
form himself  on  the  subjects  he  proposed  to  discuss  in  public, 
and  to  write  upon  them  for  forceful  and  effective  expression. 
Having  great  ingenuity,  ready  wit,  perfect  self-possession, 
and  "a  boldness  amounting  almost  to  effrontery,"  he  made 
himself  at  last  a  most  dexterous  and  effective  debater ;  in- 
somuch that  Parliament  was  astonished  and  swayed  by  his 
masterful  eloquence. 

Most  of  the  time  during  his  public  career  Sheridan  was 
arrayed  with  Fox  and  Burke  against  Pitt  the  Younger.  Pitt 
became  chancellor  of  the  exchequer  and  leader  of  the  House 
of  Commons  at  the  age  of  twenty-three,  and  prime  minister 
a  year  later.  In  one  of  his  speeches  he  taunted  Sheridan 
and  undertook  to  crush  him  by  reference  to  his  career  as  an 
actor  and  dramatist.  "No  man,"  said  Pitt,  "admires  more 
than  I  do  the  abilities  of  that  right  honorable  gentleman, 
the  elegant  sallies  of  his  thought,  the  gay  effusions  of  his 
fancy,  his  dramatic  turns  and  his  epigrammatic  point.  If 
they  were  reserved  for  the  proper  stage,  they  would  no  doubt 
receive  the  plaudits  of  the  audience,  and  it  would  be  the 
fortune  of  the  right  honorable  gentleman  to  exult  in  the  ap- 
plause of  his  own  theater."  When  Sheridan  had  opportu- 
nity to  reply  he  did  so  with  admirable  adroitness  as  follows  : 
"  On  the  particular  sort  of  personality  which  the  right  honor- 
able gentleman  has  thought  proper  to  make  use  of,  I  need 
not  comment.  The  propriety,  the  taste,  and  the  gentlemanly 
point  of  it  must  be  obvious  to  the  House.  But  let  me  assure 
the  right  honorable  gentleman  that  I  do  now,  and  will  at  any 
time  he  chooses,  to  repeat  this  sort  of  allusion,  meet  it  with 
the  most  perfect  good  humor.  Nay,  I  will  say  more.  Flattered 
and  encouraged  by  the  right  honorable  gentleman's  panegyric 
on  my  talents,  if  I  ever  engage  again  in  the  composition 


RICHARD  BRINSLEY  SHERIDAN  8l 

he  alludes  to,  I  may  be  tempted  to  an  act  of  presumption 
and  attempt  an  improvement  on  one  of  Ben  Jonson's  best 
characters,  that  of  the  Angry  Boy  in  the  'Alchemist.'"  The 
effect  was  such  that  ''Pitt  came  near  having  the  title  of 
Angry  Boy  fastened  upon  him  for  the  rest  of  his  life."  The 
skirmishes  of  wit  between  these  men  were  a  thing  of  common 
occurrence,  and  in  most  of  them  Sheridan  came  off  best.  At 
one  time  when  Pitt  was  speaking  and  Sheridan  was  interrupt- 
ing him  with  questions,  some  pertinent  and  some  perhaps 
impertinent,  the  annoyed  minister  turned  upon  him  and  de- 
clared before  the  House  that  "the  right  honorable  gentle- 
man's opposition  is  an  eternal  drag  chain."  To  which 
Sheridan  retorted  like  a  flash  that  "  the  drag  chain  is  never 
applied  except  when  the  machine  is  running  downhill." 

Sheridan's  fame  as  an  orator  rests  chiefly  on  his  speeches 
in  the  trial  of  Warren  Hastings.  Burke  had  made  a  thorough 
investigation  of  the  atrocities  committed  by  the  English  in 
India,  and  had  summoned  the  strength  of  the  Whigs  for  the 
impeachment  of  Hastings.  To  Sheridan  was  assigned  the 
part  relating  to  the  cruelties  inflicted  upon  the  Begums,  or 
Princesses  of  Oude.  Aided  by  the  facts  furnished  him  by  his 
colleagues,  Sheridan  brought  forward  the  charge  in  Commons 
in  1787.  This  speech,  though  not  preserved,  owing  to  the 
very  imperfect  method  of  reporting,  is  said  by  the  most  dis- 
tinguished men  of  the  time  to  be  an  astonishing  burst  of  elo- 
quence. Fox  said:  "All  I  have  ever  heard  or  read,  when 
compared  with  it,  dwindles  into  nothing  and  vanishes  like 
vapor  before  the  sun."  Burke  called  it  "  the  most  astonishing 
effort  of  eloquence,  argument,  and  wit  united,  of  which  there 
is  any  record  or  tradition."  Even  Pitt,  his  worst  foe,  con- 
cluded his  encomium  thus:  "It  surpassed  all  the  eloquence 
of  ancient  or  modern  times,  and  possessed  everything  that 
genius  or  art  could  furnish  to  agitate  or  control  the  human 


82  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

mind."  Twenty  years  afterwards  Wyndham  said, "  The  speech 
deserved  all  its  fame,  and  was,  in  spite  of  some  faults  of 
taste,  the  greatest  that  had  been  delivered  within  the  memory 
of  man."  The  speech  was  five  hours  in  length.  At  the  close 
of  the  first  hour  a  friend  of  Hastings  exclaimed,  "  All  this 
is  declamatory  assertion  without  proof."  At  the  end  of  the 
second  hour  he  said,  "This  is  a  most  wonderful  oration." 
At  the  end  of  the  third  hour,  "Mr.  Hastings  has  acted  un- 
justifiably." At  the  end  of  the  fourth,  "Hastings  is  an  atro- 
cious criminal."  At  the  close,  "Of  all  monsters  of  iniquity 
the  most  enormous  is  Hastings."  At  the  conclusion  of  this 
speech  the  assembly  broke  forth  in  great  applause  and  came 
forward  to  extend  congratulations.  Goodrich  remarks,  "A 
motion  was  made  to  adjourn,  that  the  House  might  have  time 
to  recover  their  calmness  and  collect  their  reason." 

Two  years  later  Sheridan  made  a  second  speech  on  the 
same  subject,  this  time  before  the  House  of  Lords.  The 
reputation  he  had  gained  from  the  previous  speech  caused 
the  expectation  of  the  people  to  be  worked  up  to  the  highest 
pitch.  The  speech  occupied  four  days,  and  during  that  time 
the  hall  was  densely  packed  with  eager  listeners.  As  much 
as  fifty  pounds  was  paid  in  a  few  instances  for  seats.  The 
subject  was  the  same  as  in  the  former  speech  —  the  Begums 
or  the  Princesses  of  Oude —  and  Sheridan  was  called  upon  to 
reproduce  much  the  same  argument  he  had  presented  before 
to  the  House  of  Commons.  It  was  not  so  eloquent  as  the 
first  speech,  and  the  effect  upon  the  audience  was  not  so 
great,  yet  it  was  a  remarkable  speech  and  has  been  well  pre- 
served ;  in  fact  it  is  the  only  speech  of  Sheridan's  of  any 
considerable  length  that  has  been  well  reproduced.  Burke 
spoke  of  it  as  a  "  display  of  powers  .  .  .  that  reflects  the 
highest  honor  upon  himself,  luster  upon  letters,  renown  upon 
Parliament,  glory  upon  the  country."    During  a  career  of 


RICHARD  BRINSLEY  SHERIDAN  83 

thirty  years  Sheridan  took  part  in  almost  all  important  de- 
bates, but  he  never  again  attempted  ''  that  lofty  strain  of  elo- 
quence which  gained  him  such  rapturous  applause  on  this 
occasion." 

Students  of  oratory  will  find  much  to  interest  them  in  a 
consideration  of  Sheridan's  method  of  speaking.  In  the  first 
place  he  was  physically  well  equipped  for  his  work.  He  had 
a  striking,  manly  figure,  an  expressive  face,  large,  black, 
piercing  eyes,  a  deep,  clear,  mellow  voice,  not  loud  but  pene- 
trating and  well  suited  to  invective.  His  action  was  graceful, 
dignified,  and  full  of  force.  A  student  of  theatricals  in  his 
youth,  he  had  gained  a  mastery  of  vocal  expression  and  ges- 
ture that  added  greatly  to  the  grace  and  beauty  of  his  oratory. 
Self-possessed,  suave  of  temper,  dauntless  of  spirit,  undis- 
turbed in  the  presence  of  antagonists,  he  never  faltered  but 
kept  right  on  in  his  course  with  admirable  and  impressive 
strength.  While  inflicting  the  most  cutting  chastisement  on 
an  opponent  he  never  lost  his  temper  but  maintained  an  ex- 
asperating coolness  and  good  humor.  This  made  him  all 
the  more  popular  and  effective  with  his  audience,  and  more 
formidable  as  an  opponent  than  many  Commoners  of  far 
greater  information  and  reasoning  powers.  He  had  an  un- 
flinching memory  for  facts  and  incidents,  and  poured  forth 
his  thought  with  unfailing  fluency  and  breathless  rapidity. 

There  was  great  variety  in  Sheridan's  style.  Rhetorical 
passages  were  interspersed  with  dry  facts.  Argument  and  per- 
suasion were  intermingled  with  story  and  humor  ;  pathos  and 
sublimity  with  wit  and  raillery.  His  strokes  of  pathos  and 
sallies  of  wit  kept  the  audience  continually  on  the  alert.  The 
most  businesslike  of  his  speeches  were  enlivened  with  wit 
and  fun,  and  when  it  struck  it  was  always  effective.  He  gave 
free  vent  to  beautiful  imagery  and  lofty  fancy.  There  was  no 
weariness  on  the  part  of  the  audience.   On  the  contrary,  there 


84  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

was  intense  interest  to  the  end.  When  he  was  announced  to 
speak,  expectation  was  great.  A  murmur  of  eagerness  swept 
over  the  audience,  every  utterance  was  watched  with  deep 
interest,  and  his  first  pleasantries  would  set  the  people  in  a 
roar.  His  diction  was  choice.  This  is  attributable  largely  to 
his  careful  preparation  of  the  best  or  at  least  the  most  strik- 
ing parts  of  his  orations.  His  unfailing  memory  enabled  him 
to  recall  without  effort  what  he  had  written,  and  use  it  at 
will.  A  notebook  found  after  his  death  revealed  the  fact 
that  a  great  many  of  his  famous  jests,  his  epigrams,  his 
thmsts  of  wit,  his  volleys  of  satire,  were  carefully  worked  out 
beforehand  in  his  study.  "  To  this  collection,"  says  one  biog- 
rapher, ''we  may  trace  a  large  part  of  those  playful  allusions, 
keen  retorts,  sly  insinuations,  and  brilliant  sallies  which  flash 
out  in  his  speeches."  These  passages  were  often  prepared 
months  before  he  had  opportunity  to  use  them.  Pitt  once 
taunted  him  with  having  "  hoarded  repartees  and  matured 
jests."  Indeed  it  was  hard  for  Sheridan  to  keep  from  making 
too  great  a  difference  between  his  studied  passages  and  the 
extemporized  parts  of  his  discourse.  This  careful  and  thor- 
ough preparation  of  his  addresses  is  a  source  of  power  worthy 
to  be  imitated.  Like  Demosthenes,  he  looked  upon  this  as 
a  compliment  to  his  audience.  And  he  could  toil  terribly 
when  necessary.  Herein  lay  his  ability  to  discover  the  weak- 
nesses in  the  arguments  of  the  opposition,  and  his  power  to 
expose  them.  His  preparation,  aided  by  his  natural  gifts  of 
fluency,  wit,  invention,  and  a  sense  of  the  value  of  words  in 
their  relation,  made  his  speeches  fresh,  entertaining,  and 
instructive. 

One  of  his  sources  of  greatest  power  was  his  knowledge 
of  human  character.  The  orator  cannot  reach  men  without 
an  intimate  knowledge  of  the  human  heart  and  the  action 
of  mind  upon  mind.    This  Sheridan  possessed  in  a  marked 


RICHARD  BRINSLEY  SHERIDAN  85 

degree,  due  no  doubt  not  only  to  his  intimate  mingling  with 
men  but  to  his  critical  study  of  character  as  a  dramatist. 

When  Sheridan  entered  Parliament  it  was  predicted  that 
his  career  would  be  a  failure,  like  that  of  many  other  literary 
men  who  had  preceded  him.  But  he  proved  to  be  more  than 
an  actor  and  a  dramatist.  He  became  an  orator  and  a  states- 
man whose  services  were  constantly  in  demand,  and  had  he 
not  been  so  long  in  the  party  of  the  opposition  he  might 
have  been  in  high  public  office  much  of  the  time.  His  de- 
termination to  succeed  in  whatever  he  undertook  is  the  secret 
of  his  success  in  literature  and  statecraft.  Not  strong  enough 
or  perhaps  not  well  adapted  for  leadership,  still  he  was  wise 
and  courageous  enough  to  ally  himself  with  men  of  such 
moral  force  as  Chatham  and  Burke.  There  was  a  sort  of 
fascination  about  him  that  enabled  him  to  win  his  way  with 
the  leaders.  His  quickness  and  penetration,  his  versatile 
talents,  his  skill  as  an  orator,  coupled  with  the  guidance  of 
such  farseeing  statesmen,  made  him  a  very  useful  public 
serv^ant. 

As  an  orator  Sheridan  was  oriental  rather  than  classic. 
Sears,  in  his  "  History  of  Oratory,"  makes  this  estimate  of 
him  :  "  With  a  Celtic  intellect  that  was  always  in  extremes, 
joingd  to  a  native  sense  of  humor,  he  could  not  be  reckoned  of 
the  Demosthenian  type.  Impetuous  and  heedless,  he  plunged 
into  the  very  errors  he  was  quick  to  detect  and  expose.  But 
for  conjuring  up  a  storm  of  eloquence  that  should  bear  his 
hearers  away  from  their  sober  sense,  stirring  their  emotions 
and  moving  their  will,  his  magnetic  and  impulsive  oratory  was 
surpassed  by  none  and  equaled  by  few."  Lord  Byron  in 
speaking  of  his  talents  said  :  "  Whatever  he  has  chosen  to 
do  has  been  the  best  of  its  kind.  He  has  written  the  best 
comedy,  the  best  drama,  the  best  farce,  and  delivered  the 
very  best  oration  ever  heard  in  the  country." 


86  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

The  last  few  years  of  Sheridan's  life  were  most  miserable. 
He  was  reckless  in  his  habits  and  had  always  lived  beyond 
his  means.  His  improvidence  knew  no  bounds.  When  the 
Drury  Lane  Theater,  of  which  he  was  a  part  owner,  burned 
down  it  left  him  almost  penniless.  Already  grossly  intemper- 
ate, he  gradually  grew  worse,  until  only  the  strongest  intoxi- 
cants would  satisfy  him.  Disease  set  in  and  gloom  settled 
upon  him.  Harassed  by  debts  and  writs  of  ejectment  and 
the  fear  of  imprisonment  for  debt,  his  life  was  miserable  and 
desolate  in  the  extreme.  He  became  bankrupt  in  character 
as  well  as  in  health;  his  influence  in  Parliament  was  at  an 
end  ;  the  public  deserted  him  in  his  poverty  and  debauchery. 
At  last  he  died  at  the  age  of  sixty-four,  "a  melancholy  ex- 
ample of  brilliant  talents  sacrificed  to  a  love  of  display  and 
convivial  indulgence."  But  he  was  given  a  place  in  the  Poet's 
Corner  of  Westminster  Abbey.  His  body  was  borne  to  its 
last  resting  place  by  royal  dukes  and  noble  lords.  Great  was 
the  throng  that  flocked  to  his  funeral  and  great  were  the 
evidences  of  their  affection. 

TRIAL  OF  WARREN  HASTINGS 

Delivered  before  the  House  of  Lords,  sitting  as  a  high  court  of  Parlia- 
ment, June,  1788.  The  Begums  were  the  mother  and  widow  of  the  Nalfob  of 
the  kingdom  of  Oude,  on  the  upper  Ganges.  The  Nabob's  son,  who  reigned 
in  his  stead,  was  a  weak  king  and  allowed  himself  to  be  imposed  upon  by 
the  East  India  Company.  They  required  him  to  maintain  a  company  of 
English  troops,  ostensibly  for  his  protection.  But  the  officers  levied  tribute 
on  the  natives  and  accumulated  large  fortunes,  so  that  the  kingdom  was 
reduced  from  prosperity  to  ruin.    Hastings  was  declared  responsible  for  it. 

I.    HASTINGS'S   MALADMINISTRATION 

My  lords,  I  shall  not  waste  your  lordships'  time  nor  my  own 
by  any  preliminary  observations  on  the  importance  of  the  subject 
before  you,  or  on  the  propriety  of  our  bringing  it  in  this  solemn 
manner  to  a  final  decision.    Confiding  in  the  dignity,  the  liberality, 


RICHARD   BRINSLEY  SHERIDAN  8/ 

and  intelligence  of  the  tribunal  before  which  I  now  have  the  honor 
to  appear  in  my  delegated  capacity  of  a  manager,  I  do  not,  indeed, 
conceive  it  necessary  to  engage  your  lordships'  attention  for  a  single 
moment  with  any  introductory  animadversions.  But  there  is  one 
point  which  here  presents  itself  that  it  becomes  me  not  to  overlook. 
Insinuations  have  been  thrown  out  that  my  honorable  colleagues 
and  myself  are  actuated  by  motives  of  malignity  against  the  unfor- 
tunate prisoner  at  the  bar.  An  imputation  of  so  serious  a  nature 
cannot  be  permitted  to  pass  altogether  without  comment. 

I  can,  my  lords,  most  confidently  aver  that  a  prosecution  more 
disinterested  in  all  its  motives  and  ends,  more  free  from  personal 
malice  or  personal  interest,  more  perfectly  public,  and  more  purely 
animated  by  the  simple  and  unmixed  spirit  of  justice,  never  was 
brought  in  any  country,  at  any  time,  by  any  body  of  men,  against 
any  individual.  What  possible  resentment  can  we  entertain  against 
the  unfortunate  prisoner?  What  possible  interest  can  we  have  in 
his  conviction  ?  What  possible  object  of  a  personal  nature  can  we 
accomplish  by  his  ruin  ?  For  myself,  my  lords,  I  make  this  solemn 
asseveration,  that  I  discharge  my  breast  of  all  malice,  hatred,  and 
ill  will  against  the  prisoner,  if  at  any  time  indignation  at  his  crimes 
has  planted  in  it  these  passions ;  and  I  believe,  my  lords,  that  I 
may  with  equal  truth  answer  for  every  one  of  my  colleagues. 

We  are,  my  lords,  anxious,  in  stating  the  crimes  with  which  he 
is  charged,  to  keep  out  of  recollection  the  person  of  the  unfortu- 
nate prisoner.  In  prosecuting  him  to  conviction,  we  are  impelled 
only  by  a  sincere  abhorrence  of  his  guilt  and  a  sanguine  hope  of 
remedying  future  delinquency.  We  can  have  no  private  incentive 
to  the  part  we  have  taken.  We  are  actuated  singly  by  the  zeal  we 
feel  for  the  public  welfare,  and  by  an  honest  solicitude  for  the 
honor  of  our  country  and  the  happiness  of  those  who  are  under 
its  dominion  and  protection. 

This  prosecution,  my  lords,  was  not,  as  is  alleged,  ''  begot  in 
prejudice  and  nursed  in  error."  It  originated  in  the  clearest  con- 
viction of  wrongs  which  the  natives  of  Hindustan  have  endured  by 
the  maladministration  of  those  in  whose  hands  this  country  had 


88  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

placed  extensive  powers ;  which  ought  to  have  been  exercised  for 
the  benefit  of  the  governed,  but  which  was  used  by  the  prisoner 
for  the  shameful  purpose  of  oppression.  I  repeat  with  emphasis, 
my  lords,  that  nothing  personal  or  malicious  has  induced  us  to 
institute  this  prosecution.  It  is  absurd  to  suppose  it.  We  come  to 
your  lordships'  bar  as  the  representatives  of  the  Commons  of 
England ;  and,  as  acting  in  this  public  capacity,  it  might  as  truly  be 
said  that  the  Commons,  in  whose  name  the  impeachment  is  brought 
before  your  lordships,  were  actuated  by  enmity  to  the  prisoner, 
as  that  we,  their  deputed  organs,  have  any  private  spleen  to 
gratify  in  discharging  the  duty  imposed  upon  us  by  our  principals. 
But  though,  my  lords,  I  designate  the  prisoner  as  a  proper 
subject  of  exemplary  punishment,  let  it  not  be  presumed  that  I 
wish  to  turn  the  sword  of  justice  against  him  merely  because  some 
example  is  required.  Such  a  wish  is  as  remote  from  my  heart  as  it 
is  from  equity  and  law.  Were  I  not  persuaded  that  it  is  impossible 
I  should  fail  to  render  the  evidence  of  his  crimes  as  conclusive  as 
the  effects  of  his  conduct  are  confessedly  afflicting,  I  should  blush  at 
having  selected  him  as  an  object  of  retributive  justice.  If  I  invoke 
this  heavy  penalty  on  Mr.  Hastings,  it  is  because  I  honestly  believe 
him  to  be  a  flagitious  delinquent,  and  by  far  the  most  so  of  all 
those  who  have  contributed  to  ruin  the  natives  of  India  and  dis- 
grace the  inhabitants  of  Britain.  But  while  I  call  for  justice  upon 
the  prisoner,  I  sincerely  desire  to  render  him  justice.  It  would 
indeed  distress  me,  could  I  imagine  that  the  weight  and  conse- 
quence of  the  House  of  Commons,  who  are  a  party  in  this  prose- 
cution, could  operate  in  the  slightest  degree  to  his  prejudice ;  but  I 
entertain  no  such  solicitude  or  apprehension.  It  is  the  glory  of  the 
Constitution  under  which  we  live,  that  no  man  can  be  punished 
without  guilt,  and  this  guilt  must  be  publicly  demonstrated  by  a 
series  of  clear,  legal,  manifest  evidence,  so  that  nothing  dark,  noth- 
ing oblique,  nothing  authoritative,  nothing  insidious,  shall  work 
to  the  detriment  of  the  subject.  It  is  not  the  peering  suspicion  of 
apprehended  guilt.  It  is  not  any  popular  abhorrence  of  its  wide- 
spread consequences.    It  is  not  the  secret  consciousness  in  the 


RICHARD  BRINSLEY  SHERIDAN  89 

bosom  of  the  judge  which  can  excite  the  vengeance  of  the  law  and 
authorize  its  infliction !  No !  In  this  good  land,  as  high  as  it  is 
happy,  because  as  just  as  it  is  free,  all  is  definite,  equitable,  and 
exact.  The  laws  must  be  satisfied  before  they  are  incurred ;  and 
ere  a  hair  of  the  head  can  be  plucked  to  the  ground,  legal  guilt 
must  be  established  by  legal  proof. 


II.    THE  BEGUM  CHARGE 

Hastings  knew  that  the  young  Nabob  of  Oude  would  be  eager  to 
purchase  his  deliverance  from  the  British  troops  which  were  maintained  at 
his  expense.  He  offered  Hastings  ;!^ioo,ooo,  but  a  much  larger  sum  was 
needed,  so  the  dissolute  king  engaged  to  strip  the  Begum  princesses  of 
their  treasures  and  their  lands,  in  short,"  to  rob  his  mother  and  his  grand- 
mother not  only  of  all  their  property  but  of  their  yearly  income  left  by  his 
father,"  delivering  to  Hastings  the  proceeds. 

The  commotions,  my  lords,  which  prevail  in  Oude  have  been 
attributed  to  the  Begums.  But  these  disorders,  I  confidently  aver, 
were,  on  the  contrary,  the  work  of  the  English. 

They  were' produced  by  their  rapacity  and  violence.  To  drain 
the  province  of  its  money,  every -species  of  cruelty,  of  extortion,  of 
rapine,  of  stealth  was  employed  by  the  emissaries  of  Mr.  Hastings. 
The  Nabob  perceived  the  growing  discontent  among  the  people, 
and,  alarmed  at  the  consequences,  endeavored,  by  the  strongest 
representations,  to  rid  his  devoted  country  of  the  oppressions  of 
its  invaders,  and  particularly  from  the  vulture  grasp  of  Colonel 
Hannay ;  swearing  by  Mohammed  that  if  "  this  tyrant  were  not 
removed  he  would  quit  the  province,"  as  a  residence  in  it  was  no 
longer  to  be  endured.  Thus  this  mild  people  suffered  for  a  while 
in  barren  anguish  and  ineffectual  bewailings.  At  length,  however, 
in  their  meek  bosoms,  where  injury  never  before  begot  resentment, 
nor  despair  aroused  to  courage,  increased  oppression  had  its  effect. 
They  determined  on  resistance.  They  collected  round  their  im- 
placable foe  [Colonel  Hannay],  and  had  nearly  sacrificed  him.  So 
deeply  were  they  impressed  with  the  sense  of  their  wrongs  that 
they  would  not  even  accept  of  life  from  their  oppressors.    They 


90  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

threw  themselves  upon  the  swords  of  the  soldiery  and  sought 
death  as  the  only  termination  of  their  sorrows  and  persecutions. 
Of  a  people  thus  injured  and  thus  feeling,  it  is  an  audacious  fallacy 
to  attribute  their  conduct  to  any  external  impulse.  My  lords,  the 
true  cause  of  it  is  to  be  traced  to  the  first-born  principles  of  man. 
It  grows  with  his  growth ;  it  strengthens  with  his  strength.  It 
teaches  him  to  understand;  it  enables  him  to  feel.  For  where 
there  is  human  fate  can  there  be  a  penury  of  human  feeling? 
Where  there  is  injury  will  there  not  be  resentment  ?  Is  not  despair 
to  be  followed  by  courage  ?  The  God  of  battles  pervades  and  pene- 
trates the  inmost  spirit  of  man,  and,  rousing  him  to  shake  off  the 
burden  that  is  grievous,  and  the  yoke  that  is  galling,  reveals  the 
law  written  on  his  heart,  and  the  duties  and  privileges  of  his  nature. 
If,  my  lords,  a  stranger  had  at  this  time  entered  the  province 
of  Oude,  ignorant  of  what  had  happened  since  the  death  of  Sujah 
Dowlah,  that  prince  who,  with  a  savage  heart,  had  still  great  lines 
of  character,  and  who,  with  all  his  ferocity  in  war,  had,  with  a 
cultivating  hand,  preserved  to  his  country  the  wealth  which  it 
derived  from  benignant  skies  and  a  prolific  soil  —  if,  observing  the 
wide  and  general  devastation  of  fields  unclothed  and  brown ;  of 
vegetation  burned  up  and  extinguished ;  of  villages  depopulated 
and  in  ruin ;  of  temples  unroofed  and  perishing ;  of  reservoirs 
broken  down  and  dry,  this  stranger  should  ask :  "  What  has  thus 
laid  waste  this  beautiful  and  opulent  land ;  what  monstrous  mad- 
ness has  ravaged  with  widespread  war ;  what  desolating  foreign 
foe  ;  what  civil"  discords  ;  wha't  disputed  succession  ;  what  religious 
zeal;  what  fabled  monster  has  stalked  abroad,  and,  with  malice 
and  mortal  enmity  to  man,  withered  by  the  grasp  of  death  every 
growth  of  nature  and  humanity,  all  means  of  delight,  and  each 
original,  simple  principle  of  bare  existence  ? "  the  answer  would 
have  been  not  one  of  these  causes !  No  wars  have  ravaged  these 
lands  and  depopulated  these  villages  !  No  desolating  foreign  foe ! 
No  domestic  broils !  No  disputed  succession !  No  religious, 
superserviceable  zeal  !  No  poisonous  monster  !  No  affliction  of 
Providence,  which,  while  it  scourged  us,  cut  off  the  sources  of 


RICHARD  BRINSLEY  SHERIDAN  91 

resuscitation !  No !  This  damp  of  death  is  the  mere  effusion 
of  British  amity !  We  sink  under  the  pressure  of  their  support ! 
We  writhe  under  their  perfidious  gripe ! 

What,  then,  my  lords,  shall  we  bear  to  be  told  that,  under  such 
circumstances,  the  exasperated  feelings  of  a  whole  people,  thus 
spurred  on  to  clamor  and  resistance,  were  excited  by  the  poor  and 
feeble  influence  of  the  Begums  ?  Or  that  they  could  inspire  this 
enthusiasm  and  this  despair  into  the  breasts  of  a  people  who  felt 
no  grievance  and  had  suffered  no  torture  ?  What  motive,  then, 
could  have  such  influence  in  their  bosom  ?  What  motive !  That 
which  nature,  the  common  parent,  plants  in  the  bosom  of  man; 
and  which,  though  it  may  be  less  active  in  the  Indian  than  in  the 
Englishman,  is  still  congenial  with,  and  makes  a  part  of,  his  being. 
That  feeling  which  tells  him  that  man  was  never  made  to  be  the 
property  of  man ;  but  that,  when  in  the  pride  and  insolence  of 
power,  one  human  creature  dares  to  tyrannize  over  another,  it  is 
a  power  usurped,  and  resistance  is  a  duty.  That  principle  which 
tells  him  that  resistance  to  power  usurped  is  not  merely  a  duty 
which  he  owes  to  himself  and  to  his  neighbor,  but  a  duty  which  he 
owes  to  his  God,  in  asserting  and  maintaining  the  rank  which 
he  gave  him  in  his  creation.  That  principle  which  neither  the 
rudeness  of  ignorance  can  stifle,  nor  the  enervation  of  refinement 
extinguish  !  That  principle  which  makes  it  base  for  a  man  to  suffer 
when  he  ought  to  act;  which,  tending  to  preserve  to  the  species 
the  original  designations  of  Providence,  spurns  at  the  arrogant  dis- 
tinctions of  man  and  indicates  the  independent  quality  of  his  race. 

There  is  nothing,  my  lords,  to  be  found  in  the  history  of 
human  turpitude ;  nothing  in  the  nervous  delineations  and  pene- 
trating brevity  of  Tacitus ;  nothing  in  the  luminous  and  luxuriant 
pages  of  Gibbon,  or  of  any  other  historian,  dead  or  living,  who, 
searching  into  measures  and  characters  with  the  rigor  of  truth, 
presents  to  our  abhorrence  depravity  in  its  blackest  shapes,  which 
can  equal,  in  the  grossness  of  the  guilt,  or  in  the  hardness  of  heart 
with  which  it  was  conducted,  or  in  low  and  groveling  motives,  the 
acts  and  character  of  the  prisoner.    It  was  he  who,  in  the  base 


92         •    BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

desire  of  stripping  two  helpless  women,  could  stir  the  son  to. rise 
up  in  vengeance  against  them ;  who,  when  that  son  had  certain 
touches  of  nature  in  his  breast,  certain  feelings  of  an  awakened 
conscience,  could  accuse  him  of  entertaining  peevish  objections  to 
the  plunder  and  sacrifice  of  his  mother  ;  who,  having  finally  divested 
him  of  all  thought,  all  reflection,  all  memory,  all  conscience,  all 
tenderness  and  duty  as  a  son,  all  dignity  as  a  monarch;  having 
destroyed  his  character  and  depopulated  his  country,  at  length 
brought  him  to  violate  the  dearest  ties  of  nature,  in  countenancing 
the  destruction  of  his  parents.  This  crime,  I  say,  has  no  parallel 
or  prototype  in  the  Old  World  or  the  New,  from  the  day  of  original 
sin  to  the  present  hour. 

III.    CRUELTIES   INFLICTED 

The  agents  of  Hastings  seized  the  treasures  of  the  palace,  punished 
severely  the  Begums'  ministers,  and  treated  the  princesses  with  great  sever- 
ity, leaving  them  "  nothing  for  their  support  or  comfort,  not  even  their 
common  household  utensils."  Hastings  is  held  responsible  for  the  acts  of 
his  agents. 

The  expressions  contained  in  the  letter  of  Mr.  Middleton,  of 
tender  solicitude  for  his  son,  have  been  also  mentioned,  as  a  proof 
of  the  amiableness  of  his  affections.  I  confess  that  they  do  not  tend 
to  raise  his  character  in  my  estimation.  Is  it  not  rather  an  aggra- 
vation of  his  guilt,- that  he,  who  thus  felt  the  anxieties  of  a  parent, 
and  who,  consequently,  must  be  sensible  of  the  reciprocal  feelings 
of  a  child,  could  be  brought  to  tear  asunder,  and  violate  in  others, 
all  those  dear  and  sacred  bonds  ?  Does  it  not  enhance  the  turpitude 
of  the  transaction,  that  it  was  not  the  result  of  idiotic  ignorance  or 
brutal  indiff"erence }  I  aver  that  his  guilt  is  increased  and  magnified 
by  these  considerations.  His  criminality  would  have  been  less  had 
he  been  insensible  .to  tenderness  —  less,  if  he  had  not  been  so  thor- 
oughly acquainted  with  the  true  quality  of  parental  love  and  filial 
duty. 

It  is,  my  lords,  surely  superfluous  to  dwell  on  the  sacredness  of 
the  ties  which  those  aliens  to  feeling,  those  apostates  to  humanity. 


RICHARD  BRINSLEY  SHERIDAN  93 

thus  divided.  In  such  an  assembly  as  the  one  before  which  I  speak, 
there  is  not  an  eye  but  must  look  reproof  to  this  conduct,  not  a 
heart  but  must  anticipate  its  condemnation.  Filial  piety !  It  is  the 
primal  bond  of  society.  It  is  that  instinctive  principle  which,  panting 
for  its  proper  good,  soothes,  unbidden,  each  sense  and  sensibility 
of  man.  It  now  quivers  on  every  lip.  It  now  beams  from  every 
eye.  It  is  that  gratitude  which,  softening  under  the  sense  of  recol- 
lected good,  is  eager  to  own  the  vast,  countless  debt  it  never,  alas ! 
can  pay,  for  so  many  long  years  of  unceasing  solicitudes,  honorable 
self-denials,  life-preserving  cares.  It  is  that  part  of  our  practice 
where  duty  drops  its  awe,  where  reverence  refines  into  love.  It 
asks  no  aid  of  memory.  It  needs  not  the  deductions  of  reason. 
Preexisting,  paramount  over  all,  whether  moral  law  or  human  rule, 
few  arguments  can  increase  and  none  can  diminish  it.  It  is  the 
sacrament  of  our  nature,  not  only  the  duty,  but  the  indulgence  of 
man.  It  is  his  first  great  privilege.  It  is  among  his  last  most  en- 
dearing delights.  It  causes  the  bosom  to  glow  with  reverberated 
love.  It  requites  the  visitations  of  nature  and  returns  the  blessings 
that  have  been  received.  It  fires  emotion  into  vital  principle.  It 
changes  what  was  instinct  into  a  master  passion ;  sways  all  the 
sweetest  energies  of  man ;  hangs  over  vicissitudes  that  must  pass 
away ;  and  aids  the  melancholy  virtues  in  their  last  sad  tasks  of 
life,  to  cheer  the  languors  of  decrepitude  •  and  age. 

T\\&  j'aghires  being  seized,  my  lords,  the  Begums  were  left  with- 
out the  smallest  share  of  that  pecuniary  compensation  promised 
by  Mr.  Middleton,  as  an  equivalent  for  the  resumption.  And  as 
tyranny  and  injustice,  when  they  take  the  field,  are  always  attended 
by  their  camp  followers,  paltry  pilfering  and  petty  insult,  so  in 
this  instance,  the  goods  taken  from  the  princesses  were  sold  at  a 
mock  sale  at  an  inferior  value.  Even  gold  and  jewels,  to  use  the 
language  of  the  Begums,  instantly  lost  their  value  when  it  was 
known  that  they  came  from  them.  Their  ministers  were  impris- 
oned, to  extort  the  deficiency  which  this  fraud  occasioned ;  and 
every  mean  art  was  employed  to  justify  a  continuance  of  cruelty 
toward  them. 


94  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

If  I  could  not  prove,  my  lords,  that  those  acts  of  Mr.  Middleton 
were  in  reality  the  acts  of  Mr.  Hastings,  I  should  not  trouble  your 
Lordships  by  combating  them ;  but  as  this  part  of  this  criminality 
can  be  incontestably  ascertained,  I  appeal  to  the  assembled  legisla- 
tors of  this  realm  to  say  whether  these  acts  were  justifiable  on  the 
score  of  policy.  I  appeal  to  all  the  august  presidents  in  the  courts 
of  British  justice,  and  to  all  the  learned  ornaments  of  the  profession, 
to  decide  whether  these  acts  were  reconcilable  to  justice.  I  appeal 
to  the  reverend  assemblage  of  prelates  feeling  for  the  general  inter- 
ests of  humanity  and  for  the  honor  of  the  religion  to  which  they 
belong,  to  determine  whether  these  acts  of  Mr.  Hastings  and 
Mr.  Middleton  were  such  as  a  Christian  ought  to  perform,  or  a  man 
to  avow. 

Thus,  my  lords,  was  a  British  garrison  made  the  climax  of  cru- 
elties !  To  English  arms,  to  English  officers,  around  whose  banners 
humanity  has  ever  entwined  her  most  glorious  wreath,  how  will  this 
sound  ?  It  was  in  this  fort,  where  the  British  flag  was  flying,  that 
these  helpless  prisoners  were  doomed  to  deeper  dungeons,  heavier 
chains,  and  severer  punishments.  Where  that  flag  was  displayed 
which  was  wont  to  cheer  the  depressed,  and  to  dilate  the  subdued 
heart  of  misery,  these  venerable  but  unfortunate  men  were  fated 
to  encounter  every  aggravation  of  horror  and  distress. 

It  might,  my  lords,  have  been  hoped,  for  the  honor  of  the  human 
heart,  that  the  Begums  were  themselves  exempted  from  a  share  in 
these  sufferings,  and  that  they  had  been  wounded  only  through  the 
sides  of  their  ministers.  The  reverse  of  this,  however,  is  the  fact. 
Their  palace  was  surrounded  by  a  guard.  The  women,  who  were 
not  involved  in  the  Begums'  supposed  crimes,  who  had  raised  no 
subrebellion  of  their  own,  and  who  lived  in  a  distinct  dwelling, 
were  causelessly  implicated,  nevertheless,  in  the  same  punishment. 
Their  residence  surrounded  with  guards,  they  were  driven  to  de- 
spair by  famine,  and  when  they  poured  forth  in  sad  procession, 
were  beaten  with  bludgeons  and  forced  back  by  the  soldiery  to  the 
scene  of  madness  which  they  had  quitted.  These  are  acts  which, 
when  told,  need  no  comment. 


RICHARD  BRINSLEY  SHERIDAN  95 

After  this,  my  lords,  can  it  be  said  that  the  prisoner  was  igno- 
rant of  the  acts,  or  not  culpable  for  their  consequences  ?  It  is  true, 
he  did  not  direct  the  guards,  the  famine,  and  the  bludgeons  ;  he  did 
not  weigh  the  fetters,  nor  number  the  lashes  to  be  inflicted  on  his 
victims  ;  but  yet  he  is  just  as  guilty  as  if  he  had  borne  an  active  and 
personal  share  in  each  transaction.  It  is  as  if  he  had  commanded 
that  the  heart  should  be  torn  from  the  bosom,  and  enjoined  that  no 
blood  should  follow.  He  is  in  the  same  degree  accountable  to  the 
law,  to  his  country,  to  his  conscience,  and  to  his  God ! 

You,  my  lords,  who  hear  me,  I  conjure,  by  those  rights  which 
it  is  your  best  privilege  to  preserve ;  by  that  fame  which  it  is  your 
best  pleasure  to  inherit ;  by  all  those  feelings  which  refer  to  the 
first  term  in  the  series  of  existence,  the  original  compact  of  our 
nature,  our  controlling  rank  in  the  creation.  This  is  the  call  on  all 
to  administer  to  truth  and  equity,  as  they  would  satisfy  the  laws 
and  satisfy  themselves,  with  the  most  exalted  bliss  possible  or  con- 
ceivable for  our  nature  ;  the  self-approving  consciousness  of  virtue, 
when  the  condemnation  we  look  for  will  be  one  of  the  most  ample 
mercies  accomplished  for  mankind  since  the  creation  of  the  world  ! 
My  lords,  I  have  done. 


DANIEL  O'CONNELL 


Daniel  O'Connell  (1775 -1847),  the  great  Irish  agitator, 
received  his  early  education  at  a  country  school  of  Ireland, 
under  the  tutorship  of  a  Catholic  priest.  He  afterwards  at- 
tended St.-Omer's  College,  which  was  established  by  the  Eng- 
lish Jesuits  in  France. 
His  standing  as  a  student 
was  high.  Whatever  he 
set  about  to  do  was  done 
with  ceaseless  diligence. 
On  completing  his  gen- 
eral training  he  began  the 
study  of  law  and  became 
expert,  especially  in  crim- 
inal and  constitutional 
law.  Tireless  as  a  worker, 
he  acquired  complete 
familiarity  with  the  tech- 
nique of  his  profession. 
So  centered  was  his 
thought  on  the  law  and 
the  cases  which  came  up,  that  his  knowledge  of  literature  in 
general  was  somewhat  meager. 

His  high  rank  as  a  forensic  orator  is  due  to  his  great 
relish  for  the  legal  profession,  his  knowledge  of  men,  his 
penetration  of  their  motives,  his  ceaseless  practice  in  speak- 
ing, and  his  great  care  in  the  preparation  of  his  cases.  As  an 
advocate  he  used  the  utmost  vigilance  and  caution.  No  flaw 
or  loophole  in  an  opponent's  case  escaped  his  eagle  eye. 

96 


1 

^^^ 

^^^m 

A  ("  ^wmh 

iHroSSi     \    ^s^    \     ^^^^llfiiiMH 

-^ 

/<^^ 

^ 

^—J 

L_f ^1 

DANIEL  O'CONNELL  97 

Unrivaled  for  tact,  shrewdness,  and  presence  of  mind  ;  keen, 
ingenious,  and  thorough  in  the  details  of  business,  he  must 
be  accorded  first  laurels  as  an  advocate,  for  his  sway  over  a 
jury  was  complete.  His  absolute  control  of  men,  and  the 
dead-sureness  with  which  he  undertook  a  case,  has  caused 
him  to  be  criticized  for  employing  the  methods  of  a  bully  or 
a  browbeater.  It  is  said  of  him  that  his  actions  in  the  court 
room  were  sometimes  those  of  the  actor.  If  things  did  not  go 
to  suit  him,  he  would  catch  up  his  brief  bag  and  dash  it  down 
on  the  table,  or  would  leave  the  court  room  in  apparent  rage, 
stopping  the  proceedings  until  a  messenger  from  the  judge 
would  call  him  back  to  take  up  his  case  again.  But  whether 
or  not  this  dramatic  manner  affected  the  court  or  the  jury  in 
his  favor,  certain  it  is  that  he  seldom  or  never  lost  a  case. 

Personally  O'Connell  was  highly  endowed  with  the  qual- 
ities of  an  orator.  In  stature  he  was  a  giant — tall,  muscular, 
broad-chested,  and  with  large  square  shoulders.  Wendell 
Phillips  speaks  of  him  as  having  a  "  magnificent  presence, 
impressive  bearing,  massive  like  that  of  Jupiter."  He  was 
homely  of  face,  but  his  countenance  was  kindly  and  sym- 
pathetic. In  action  he  was  not  particularly  graceful,  and  his 
walk  was  careless  and  shuffling.  In  temper  he  was  genial 
and  good-natured.  One  of  his  biographers  speaks  of  him 
thus  :  "  Warm  and  generous  in  feeling,  cordial  and  frank  in 
manners,  loving  a  good  joke,  having  an  exhaustless  supply 
of  wit  and  humor,  in  every  way  so  fascinating  in  manner, 
no  man  was  ever  better  fitted  to  win  and  hold  the  hearts  of 
his  countrymen." 

Another  prime  physical  qualification  was  his  wondrous 
voice.  It  was  powerful,  flexible,  and  expressive.  Disraeli  pro- 
nounced it  "the  finest  voice  ever  heard  in  Parliament — deep, 
sonorous,  distinct,  and  flexible.  In  its  transitions  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest  notes  it  was  wondrously  effective.    All 


98  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

who  heard  him  were  enchanted  by  its  swelHng  and  sinking 
waves  of  sound,  its  quiet  and  soft  cadences,  alternated  with 
bass  notes  of  grandeur." 

In  the  history  of  oratory,  so  far  as  we  have  been  able 
to  learn,  no  public  speaker  was  ever  known  to  encompass 
within  the  sound  of  his  voice  so  large  a  number  of  people. 
It  is  said  that  at  the  great  field  meeting  at  Tara,  during  the 
agitation  for  Catholic  emancipation,  one  hundred  fifty  thousand 
people  were  able  to  hear  and  understand  him.  It  cannot  be 
denied  that  he  was  one  of  the  most  successful  orators  in  the 
history  of  Great  Britain.  Though  not  a  classic  orator  to  be 
ranked  with  Burke  and  Chatham,  yet  he  ruled  the  passions 
of  the  Irish  people  absolutely  with  his  simple,  rugged  elo- 
quence. The  effect  was  genuine  and  immediate.  He  could 
melt  with  pathos  and  convulse  with  wit ;  dazzle  with  flights 
of  imagination  and  captivate  with  logic.  Audiences  gazed 
with  fascinated  admiration  as  he  spoke.  While  he  made 
the  most  careful  preparation  of  the  ideas  to  be  used  in 
his  speeches,  his  words  were  largely  extemporized.  Men 
could  feel  him  hewing  out  his  rhetoric  as  he  rushed  along. 
He  was  impulsive  in  speech,  dramatic  in  action,  and  drove 
home  his  thought  with  vigorous  gesture.  It  seemed  to  be 
no  effort  for  him  to  speak.  Wendell  Phillips,  after  hearing 
him  several  times,  says:  ''We  used  to  say  of  Webster,  this 
is  a  great  effort ;  of  Everett,  this  is  a  beautiful  effort ;  but 
you  never  used  the  word  '  effort '  in  speaking  of  O' Conn  ell. 
It  provoked  you  that  he  would  not  make  an  effort."  Phillips 
says  that  John  Randolph,  "who  hated  an  Irishman  almost 
as  he  hated  a  Yankee,  hearing  O'Connell,  exclaimed,  'This 
is  the  man,  these  are  the  lips,  the  most  eloquent  that  speak 
English  in  my  day.'  " 

His  style  is  to  be  commended  for  its  short  and  concise 
sentences,  his  impressive  periods,  his  vigorous  Anglo-Saxon, 


DANIEL  O'CONNELL  99 

his  terse  reasoning,  and  his  wealth  of  wit  and  humor.  It  is 
to  be  condemned  for  occasional  coarseness,  venom,  and  ex- 
aggeration. The  bitterness  of  his  taunts  and  sarcasm  neu- 
tralized his  influence  in  Parliament  and  reacted  upon  him 
unfavorably.  Rough  language  and  uncouth  epithets  may 
appeal  to  the  masses  and  sometimes  gain  their  point,  but  the 
tendency  is  to  "  make  the  judicious  grieve."  With  his  mas- 
sive strength,  even  though  now  and  then  coarse-grained,  he 
"  could  pound  an  antagonist  with  denunciation,  riddle  him 
with  invective,  or  roast  him  alive  before  a  slow  fire  of  sar- 
casm." When  Disraeli  turned  Tory  he  was  said  by  O'Con- 
nell  to  be  "  one  who,  if  his  genealogy  had  been  traced, 
would  be  found  to  be  the  lineal  descendant  and  true  heir- 
at-law  of  the  impenitent  thief  who  atoned  for  his  crimes 
upon  the  cross."  He  once  spoke  of  Peel  as  one  whose  smile 
was  "  like  the  silver  plate  on  a  coffin."  These  were  bitter, 
venomous  remarks,  and  made  enemies  rather  than  friends 
for  O'Connell's  cause. 

With  a  mind  strong  and  fiery  rather  than  polished,  O'Con- 
nell  was  yet  versatile  in  oratory.  He  was  equally  at  home  in 
the  forum,  on  the  stump,  and  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
When  he  first  entered  Parliament  he  was  called  the  "  mob 
orator,"  but  he  was  able  to  adapt  himself  to  his  surroundings 
and  soon  commanded  the  respectful  attention  of  that  assem- 
bly. Then,  too,  he  was  sincere.  He  could  be  trusted  because 
of  his  unsullied  private  character.  His  speech  was  listened 
to  by  the  Irish  people  with  reverent  interest,  and  he  held 
complete  sway  over  them  because  of  the  character  of  the 
man  behind  the  speech — one,  as  Wendell  Phillips  puts  it, 
"who  could  be  neither  bought,  bullied,  nor  cheated."  His 
patience,  his  disinterestedness,  and  his  fidelity  to  principle 
were  prime  elements  in  his  remarkable  career.  It  was  his 
character  and  leadership  which  enabled  him  to  revolutionize 


lOO  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

conditions  in  Ireland.  "  He  championed  the  cause  of  human- 
ity," says  Mathews,  "without  regard  to  cHme,  color,  or 
condition  ;  and  wherever  the  moan  of  the  oppressed  was 
heard,  there,  too,  was  heard  the  trumpet  voice  of  O'Connell, 
rousing  the  sympathy  of  mankind,  rebuking  the  tyrant,  and 
cheering  the  victim." 

As  a  political  agitator  he  was  daring  and  successful  be- 
cause of  his  devotion  to  his  cause,  his  race,  his  church,  and 
his  country.  Sure  of  his  point,  confident  in  his  power,  all 
his  arguments  bore  directly  upon  the  issue.  He  demanded 
the  removal  of  penalties  against  the  Catholics.  To  this  end 
he  organized  the  Catholic  Association.  He  carried  the 
agitation  to  such  an  extent  that  his  ideas  were  embodied  in  a 
measure  which  was  introduced  and  carried  in  the  House 
of  Commons.  But,  as  is  the  case  with  many  other  reforms, 
it  was  defeated  in  the  House  of  Lords.  Civil  war  seemed 
imminent.  Though  Catholics  were  not  then  admitted  to 
Parliament,  O'Connell  was  elected  and  reelected,  and  kept 
knocking  at  the  doors.  Finally,  in  1829,  the  disabilities  were 
removed  and  the  Irish  members  were  permitted  to  take  their 
seats  with  other  representatives  of  the  people.  His  influence 
in  Commons  was  so  great,  and  he  was  so  powerful  a  debater, 
that  he  almost  succeeded  in  securing  autonomy  for  Ireland. 
He  it  was  who  first  proposed  and  almost  carried  a  measure  for 
the  disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Church.  This  meant  the  with- 
drawal of  government  support  from  the  established  Church 
of  England  in  Irish  domain,  so  that  the  Catholic  and  other 
churches  might  stand  on  their  own  merits — stand  or  fall  as  in- 
stitutions supported  by  voluntary  contributions.  But  this  meas- 
ure was  not  carried  through  until  a  quarter  of  a  century  after 
O'Connell's  death,  under  the  administration  of  Gladstone. 

His  advocacy  of  Irish  independence,  or  what  later  became 
known  as  Home  Rule,  caused  his  arrest  and  imprisonment. 


DANIEL  O'CONl'JELi.  lOT 

He  was  released  after  a  few  months,  but  the  confinement 
had  undermined  his  health  and  he  was  never  afterwards 
able  to  assume  the  leadership  of  his  people.  It  is  enough  for 
us  to  know  that  by  his  masterly  eloquence  and  leadership 
he  raised  a  mass  of  dispirited,  broken-hearted  people  to  the 
plane  of  a  nation.  He  lifted  unhappy  Ireland  to  an  exalted 
place  in  British  affairs.  His  leadership  was  marvelous. 
Under  no  other  leader  have  the  Irish  people  been  so  orderly. 
His  motto  was,  "  He  who  commits  a  crime  helps  the  enemy." 
It  was  his  patient,  law-abiding  effort  which  brought  about 
Catholic  emancipation.  His  love  of  humanity  was  not  con- 
fined to  his  own  people.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  in 
our  own  struggle  to  free  the  negro,  O'Connell's  voice  was 
raised  to  enlist  his  countrymen  in  America  on  the  side  of 
the  downtrodden  slave.  He  exclaimed  in  one  of  his 
speeches  :  "I  send  my  voice  across  the  Atlantic,  careering 
like  the  thunderstorm  against  the  breeze,  to  tell  the  slave- 
holder of  the  Carolinas  that  God's  thunderbolts  are  hot, 
and  to  remind  the  bondman  that  the  dawn  of  his  redemption 
is  already  at  hand." 

REPEAL  OF  THE  UNION 

This  speech  was  deHvered  at  MuUaghmast,  Ireland,  in  September,  1843. 
Agitation  had  been  going  on  in  Ireland  since  1829,  steadily  increasing  in 
insistency  and  intensity  until  1843,  when  a  series  of  great  outdoor  mass 
meetings  was  begun  at  Trim.  The  multitudes  assembled  at  two  of  the  meet- 
ings, the  one  at  the  Hill  of  Tara,  the  other  at  MuUaghmast,  were  variously 
estimated  at  from  300,000  to  1,000,000.  The  Irish  were  a  unit  for  a  domes- 
tic parliament,  and  O'Connell  controlled  their  action  with  a  master  hand. 

I.    REPEAL  INEVITABLE 

I  accept  with  the  greatest  alacrity  the  high  honor  you  have  done 
me  in  calling  me  to  the  chair  of  this  majestic  meeting.  I  feel  more 
honored  than  I  ever  did  in  my  life,  with  one  single  exception,  and 
that  related  to,  if  possible,  an  equally  majestic  meeting  at  Tara. 


1^2**  •'*'feklTis'H'*A5fi:r- AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

But  I  must  say  that  if  a  comparison  were  instituted  between  them, 
it  would  take  a  more  discriminating  eye  than  mine  to  discover  any 
difference  between  them.  There  are  the  same  incalculable  num- 
bers ;  there  is  the  same  firmness ;  there  is  the  same  determination ; 
there  is  the  same  exhibition  of  love  for  old  Ireland ;  there  is  the 
same  resolution  not  to  violate  the  peace ;  not  to  be  guilty  of  the 
slightest  outrage ;  not  to  give  the  enemy  power  by  committing  a 
crime,  but  peacefully  and  manfully  to  stand  together  in  the  open 
day,  to  protest  before  man  and  in  the  presence  of  God  against  the 
iniquity  of  continuing  the  Union. 

At  Tara  I  protested  against  the  Union  —  I  repeat  the  protest  at 
Mullaghmast.  I  declare  solemnly  my  thorough  conviction  as  a  con- 
stitutional lawyer,  that  the  Union  is  totally  void  in  point  of  principle 
and  of  constitutional  force.  I  tell  you  that  no  portion  of  the  em- 
pire has  the  power  to  traffic  on  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  Irish 
people.  The  Irish  people  nominated  them  to  make  laws,  and  not 
legislatures.  They  were  appointed  to  act  under  the  Constitution, 
and  not  annihilate  it.  Their  delegation  from  the  people  was  con- 
fined within  the  limits  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  moment  the 
Irish  Parliament  went  beyond  those  limits  and  destroyed  the  Con- 
stitution, that  moment  it  annihilated  its  own  power,  but  could  not 
annihilate  the  immortal  spirit  of  liberty  which  belongs,  as  a  rightful 
inheritance,  to  the  people  of  Ireland.  Take  it,  then,  from  me  that 
the  Union  is  void. 

I  admit  there  is  the  force  of  a  law,  because  it  has  been  supported 
by  the  policeman's  truncheon,  by  the  soldier's  bayonet,  and  by  the 
horseman's  sword  ;  because  it  is  supported  by  the  courts  of  law  and 
those  who  have  power  to  adjudicate  in  them ;  but  I  say  solemnly, 
it  is  not  supported  by  constitutional  right.  The  union,  therefore, 
in  my  thorough  conviction,  is  totally  void,  and  I  avail  myself  of  this 
opportunity  to  announce  to  several  hundred  thousand  of  my  fel- 
low subjects  that  the  Union  is  an  unconstitutional  law  and  that  it 
is  not  fated  to  last  long.  Its  hour  is  approaching.  America  offered 
us  her  sympathy  and  support.  We  refused  the  support,  but  we 
accepted  the  sympathy ;  and  while  we  accepted  the  sympathy  of  the 


DANIEL  O'CONNELL  103 

Americans,  we  stood  upon  the  firm  ground  of  the  right  of  every 
human  being  to  liberty  ;  and  I,  in  the  name  of  the  Irish  nation,  de- 
clare that  no  support  obtained  from  America  should  be  purchased 
by  the  price  of  abandoning  principle  for  one  moment,  and  that 
principle  is  that  every  human  being  is  entitled  to  freedom. 

My  friends,  I  want  nothing  for  the  Irish  but  their  country,  and 
I  think  the  Irish  are  competent  to  obtain  their  own  country  for 
themselves.  I  like  to  have  the  sympathy  of  every  good  man  every- 
where, but  I  want  not  armed  support  or  physical  strength  from 
any  country.  The  Republican  party  in  France  offered  me  assist- 
ance. I  thanked  them  for  their  sympathy,  but  I  distinctly  refused 
to  accept  any  support  from  them.  I  want  support  from  neither 
France  nor  America,  and  if  that  usurper,  Louis  Philippe,  who^ 
trampled  on  the  liberties  of  his  own  gallant  nation,  thought  fit  to 
assail  me  in  his  newspaper,  I  returned  the  taunt  with  double  vigor, 
and  I  denounce  him  to  Europe  and  the  world  as  a  treacherous 
tyrant,  who  has  violated  the  compact  with  his  own  country,  and 
therefore  is  not  fit  to  assist  the  liberties  of  any  other  country. 

I  want  not  the  support  of  France ;  I  want  not  the  support  of 
America ;  I  have  physical  support  enough  about  me  to  achieve  any 
change ;  but  you  know  well  that  it  is  not  my  plan.  I  will  not  risk 
the  safety  of  one  of  you.  I  could  not  afford  the  loss  of  one  of  you. 
I  will  protect  you  all,  and  it  is  better  for  you  all  to  be  merry 
and  alive,  to  enjoy  the  repeal  of  the  Union  ;  but  there  is  not  a  man 
of  you  that  would  not,  if  we  were  attacked  unjustly  and  illegally, 
be  ready  to  stand  in  the  open  field  by  my  side.  Let  every  man  that 
concurs  in  that  sentiment  lift  up  his  hand.^ 

The  assertion  of  that  sentiment  is  our  sure  protection ;  for  no 
person  will  attack  us,  and  we  will  attack  nobody.  Indeed,  it  would 
be  the  height  of  absurdity  for  us  to  think  of  making  any  attack ; 
for  there  is  not  one  man  in  his  senses,  in  Europe  or  America,  that 
does  not  admit  that  the  repeal  of  the  Union  is  now  inevitable.  The 
English  papers  taunted  us,  and  their  writers  laughed  us  to  scorn ; 
but  now  they  admit  that  it  is  impossible  to  resist  the  application  for 

1  It  is  said  that  in  that  vast  multitude  all  hands  were  lifted  up. 


I04  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

repeal.  More  power  to  you.  But  that  even  shows  we  have  power 
enough  to  know  how  to  use  it.  Why,  it  is  only  this  week  that  one 
of  the  leading  London  newspapers,  called  the  Morning  Herald^ 
which  had  a  reporter  at  the  Lismore  meeting,  published  an  account 
of  that  great  ^and  mighty  meeting,  and  in  that  account  the  writer 
expressly  says  that  it  will  be  impossible  to  refuse  so  peaceable,  so 
■determined,  so  unanimous  a  people  as  the  people  of  Ireland  the 
restoration  of  their  domestic  legislature. 

II.    IRELAND   FOR  THE  IRISH 

O'Connell  denounces  in  severest  terms  the  "paltry  administration"  that 
governed  the  country.  "  I  do  not  suppose  so  worthless  an  administration 
ever  before  got  together."  He  speaks  of  Peel  as  having  "  five  hundred 
colors  on  his  bad  standard  and  not  one  of  them  permanent.  To-day  it  is 
orange,  to-morrow  it  will  be  green,  and  the  day  after  neither  the  one  nor 
the  other."  Of  Wellington  he  says,  '"  he  was  surprised  at  Waterloo,  and  if 
he  got  victoriously  out  of  that  battle,  it  is  owing  to  the  valor  of  the  British 
troops." 

Then  in  the  following  words  he  meets  the  charge  of  disloyalty  to  Eng- 
land, and  demands  justice  and  right. 

The  ministry  put  a  speech  abusing  the  Irish  into  the  Queen's 
mouth.  They  accused  us  of  disaffection,  but  there  is  no  disaffec- 
tion in  Ireland.  We  were  loyal  to  the  sovereigns  of  Great  Britain, 
even  when  they  were  our  enemies;  we  were  loyal  to  George  III, 
even  when  he  betrayed  us ;  we  were  loyal  to  George  IV  when  he 
blubbered  and  cried  when  we  forced  him  to  emancipate  us ;  we 
were  loyal  to  old  Billy,  though  his  minister  put  into  his  mouth  a 
base,  bloody,  and  intolerant  speech  against  Ireland ;  and  we  are 
loyal  to  the  Queen,  no  matter  what  our  enemies  may  say  to  the 
contrary.  -It  is  not  the  Queen's  speech,  and  I  pronounce  it  to  be 
a  lie. 

There  is  no  dissatisfaction  in  Ireland,  but  there  is  this  —  a  full 
determination  to  obtain  justice  and  liberty.  I  am  much  obliged  to 
the  ministry  for  that  speech,  for  it  gives  me,  among  other  things, 
an  opportunity  of  addressing  such  meetings  as  this.  I  had  held 
the  monster  meetings.    I  had  fully  demonstrated  the  opinion  of 


DANIEL  O'CONNELL  I05 

Ireland.  I  was  convinced  that  their  unanimous  determination  to 
obtain  liberty  was  sufficiently  signified  by  the  many  meetings  already 
held;  but  when  the  minister's  speech  came  out,  it  was  necessary 
to  do  something  more.  Accordingly  I  called  a  monster  meeting 
at  Loughrea.  I  called  another  meeting  in  Cliffden.  I  had  another 
monster  meeting  in  Lismore,  and  here  now  we  are  assembled  on 
the  Rath  of  Mullaghmast. 

0  my  friends,  I  will  keep  you  clear  of  all  treachery.  There 
shall  be  no  bargain,  no  compromise  with  England.  We  shall  take 
nothing  but  repeal,  and  a  Parliament  in  College  Green.  You  will 
never,  by  my  advice,  confide  in  any  false  hopes  they  hold  out  to 
you ;  never  confide  in  anything  coming  from  them,  or  cease  from 
your  struggle,  no  matter  what  promise  may  be  held  to  you,  until 
your  hear  me  say  I  am  satisfied ;  and  I  will  tell  you  where  I  will 
say  that  —  near  the  statue  of  King  William,  in  College  Green. 
No ;  we  came  here  to  express  our  determination  to  die  to  a  man, 
if  necessary,  in  the  cause  of  Old  Ireland.  We  came  to  take  advice 
of  each  other,  and,  above  all,  I  believe  you  came  here  to  take  my 
advice.  I  can  tell  you,  I  have  the  game  in  my  hand,  I  have  the 
triumph  secure,  I  have  the  repeal  certain,  if  you  but  obey  my 
advice. 

1  will  go  slow  —  you  must  allow  me  to  do  so  —  but  you  will  go 
sure.  No  man  shall  find  himself  imprisoned  or  persecuted  who 
follows  my  advice.  I  have  led  you  thus  far  in  safety ;  I  have 
swelled  the  multitude  of  repealers  until  they  are  identified  with 
the  entire  population,  or  nearly  the  entire  population,  of  the 
land,  for  seven  eighths  of  the  Irish  people  are  now  enrolling 
themselves  as  repealers.  I  do  not  want  more  power;  I  have 
power  enough ;  and  all  I  ask  of  you  is  to  allow  me  to  use  it. 
I  will  go  on  quietly  and  slowly,  but  I  will  go  on  firmly  and  with 
a  certainty  of  success. 

Justice  Vill  be  administered  free  of  all  expense  to  the  people. 
The  people  ^hall  have  chosen  magistrates  of  their  own  in  the  room 
of  the  magistrates  who  have  been  removed.  The  people  shall 
submit   their  differences  to  them,  and  shall  have   strict   justice 


Io6  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

administered  to  them  that  shall  not  cost  them  a  single  farthing. 
I  shall  go  on  with  that  plan  until  we  have  all  the  disputes  sjettled 
and  decided  by  justices  appointed  by  the  people  themselves; 
/\  I  wish  to  live  long  enough  to  have  perfect  justice  administered 
to  Ireland,  and  liberty  proclaimed  throughout  the  land/It  will  take 
me  some  time  to  prepare  my  plan  for  the  formation  of  the  new 
Irish  House  of  Commons  —  that  plan  which  we  will  yet  submit  to 
her  Majesty  for  her  approval  when  she  gets  rid  of  her  present  paltry 
administration  and  has  one  that  I  can  support.  But  I  must  finish 
that  job  before  I  go  forth,  and  one  of  my  reasons  for  calling  you 
together  is  to  state  my  intentions  to  you. 

Wales  is  up  at  present,  almost  in  a  state  of  insurrection.  The 
people  there  have  found  that  the  landlords'  power  is  too  great,  and 
has  been  used  tyrannically,  and  I  believe  you  agree  with  them  toler- 
ably well  in  that.  They  insist  on  the  sacredness  of  the  right  of  the 
tenants  to  security  of  possession,  and  with  the  equity  of  tenure 
which  I  would  establish  we  will  do  the  landlords  full  justice,  but 
we  will  do  the  people  justice  also.  We  will  recollect  that  the  land 
is  the  landlord's,  and  let  him  have  the  benefit  of  it,  but  we  will  also 
recollect  that  the  labor  belongs  to  the  tenant,  and  the  tenant  must 
have  the  value  of  his  labor,  not  transitory  and  by  the  day,  but  per- 
manently and  by  the  year.-^— >-. 

I  believe  no  one  in  January  last  would  believe  that  we  could 
have  such  a  meeting  within  the  year  as  the  Tara  demonstration. 
You  may  be  sure  of  this  —  and  I  say  it  in  the  presence  of  Him 
who  will  judge  me  —  that  I  never  will  willfully  deceive  you.  I  have 
but  one  wish  under  heaven,  and  that  is  for  the  liberty  and  pros- 
perity of  Ireland.  I  am  for  leaving  England  to  the  English,  Scot- 
land to  the  Scotch ;  but  we  must  have  Ireland  for  the  Irish.  I  will 
not  be  content  until  I  see  not  a  single  man  in  any  office,  from  the 
lowest  constable  to  the  lord  chancellor,  but  Irishmen.  This  is  our 
land  and  we  must  have  it.  We  will  be  obedient  to  the  Queen, 
joined  to  England  by  the  golden  link  of  the  Crown,  but  we  must 
have  our  own  Parliament,  our  own  bench,  our  own  magistrates. 
We  shall  get  judicial   independence   for   Ireland.      It  is  for  this 


DANIEL  O'CONNELL  lO/ 

purpose  we  are  assembled  here  to-day,  as  every  countenance  I  see 
around  me  testifies.  If  there  is  any  one  here  who  is  for  the  Union, 
let  him  say  so.  Is  there  anybody  here  for  the  repeal  ?  [cries  of 
"All,  All!"] 

III.    FREEDOM  FOR  IRELAND 

O'Connell  declares  the  Union  iniquitous  and  tyrannous,  but  enjoins  a 
peaceable  conquest  that  their  enemies  may  not  have  cause  for  violence 
toward  them. 

My  friends,  the  Union  was  begot  in  iniquity  —  it  was  perpetuated 
in  fraud  and  cruelty.  It  was  no  compact,  no  bargain,  but  it  was  an 
act  of  the  most  decided  tyranny  and  corruption  that  was  ever  yet 
perpetrated.  Trial  by  jury  was  suspended,  the  right  of  personal 
protection  was  at  an  end,  courts-martial  sat  throughout  the  land, 
and  the  county  of  Kildare,  among  others,  flowed  with  blood. 
We  shall  stand  peaceably  side  by  side  in  the  face  of  every  enemy. 
Oh,  how  delighted  was  I  in  the  scenes  which  I  witnessed  as  I  came 
along  here  to-day !  How  my  heart  throbbed,  how  my  spirit  was 
elevated,  how  my  bosom  swelled  with  delight  at  the  multitude  which 
I  beheld,  and  which  I  shall  behold,  of  the  stalwart  and  strong  men 
of  Kildare !  I  was  delighted  at  the  activity  and  force  that  I  saw 
around  me,  and  my  old  heart  grew  warm  again  in  admiring  the 
beauty  of  the  dark-eyed  maidens  and  matrons  of  Kildare.  And  re- 
member that  you  are  the  sons,  the  fathers,  the  brothers,  and  the 
husbands  of  such  women.  Yes,  I  am  in  a  county  remarkable  in 
the  history  of  Ireland  for  its  bravery  and  its  misfortune,  for  its  cre- 
dulity in  the  faith  of  others,  for  its  people  judged  of  the  Saxon  by 
the  honesty  and  honor  of  their  own  natures.  I  am  in  a  county  cel- 
ebrated for  the  sacredness  of  shrines  and  fanes.  I  am  in  a  county 
where  the  lamp  of  Kildare's  holy  shrine  burned  with  its  sacred  fire 
through  ages  of  darkness  and  storm  —  that  fire  which  for  six  centu- 
ries burned  before  the  high  altar  without  being  extinguished,  being 
fed  continuously,  without  the  slightest  interruption,  and  it  seemed 
to  me  to  have  been  not  an  inapt  representation  of  the  continuous 
fidelity  and  religious  love  of  country  of  the  men  of  Kildare. 


I08  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

Yes,  you  have  those  high  qualities  —  religious  fidelity,  continuous 
love  of  country.  Even  your  enemies  admit  that  the  world  has  never 
produced  any  people  that  exceed  the  Irish  in  activity  and  strength. 
The  Scottish  philosopher  has  declared,  and  the  French  philosopher 
has  confirmed  it,  that  number  one  in  the  human  race  is,  blessed  be 
Heaven,  the  Irishman.  In  moral  virtue,  in  religion,  in  perserver- 
ance,  and  in  glorious  temperance  you  excel. 

Yes,  among  the  nations  of  the  earth,  Ireland  stands  number  one 
in  the  physical  strength  of  her  sons  and  in  the  beauty  and  purity 
of  her  daughters.  Ireland,  land  of  my  forefathers,  how  my  mind 
expands  and  my  spirit  walks  abroad  in  something  of  majesty,  when 
I  contemplate  the  high  qualities,  inestimable  virtues,  and  true  purity 
and  piety  and  religious  fidelity  of  the  inhabitants  of  your  green  fields 
and  productive  mountains.  Oh,  what  a  scene  surrounds  us !  It  is 
not  only  the  countless  thousands  of  brave  and  active  and  peaceable 
and  religious  men  that  are  here  assembled,  but  Nature  herself  has 
written  her  character  with  the  finest  beauty  in  the  verdant  plains 
that  surround  us. 

Let  any  man  run  around  the  horizon  with  his  eye,  and  tell  me  if 
created  nature  ever  produced  anything  so  green  and  lovely,  so  un- 
dulating, so  teeming  with  production.  The  richest  harvests  that  any 
land  can  produce  are  those  reaped  in  Ireland  ;  and  then  here  are 
the  sweetest  meadows,  the  greenest  fields,  the  loftiest  mountains, 
the  purest  streams,  the  noblest  rivers,  the  most  capacious  harbors, 
and  her  water  power  is  equal  to  turn  the  machinery  of  the  whole 
world.  O  my  friends,  it  is  a  country  worth  fighting  for,  it  is  a 
country  worth  dying  for ;  but,  above  all,  it  is  a  country  worth  being 
tranquil,  determined,  submissive,  and  docile  for,  disciplined  as  you 
are  in  obedience  to  those  who  are  breaking  the  way  and  trampling 
down  the  barriers  between  you  and  your  constitutional  liberty.  I 
will  see  every  man  of  you  having  a  vote,  and  every  man  protected 
by  the  ballot  from  the  agent  or  landlord.  I  will  see  labor  protected, 
and  every  title  to  possession  recognized,  when  you  are  industrious 
and  honest.  I  will  see  prosperity  again  throughout  your  land.  The 
busy  hum  of  the  shuttle  and  the  tinkling  of  the  smithy  shall  be 


DANIEL  O'CONNELL  109 

heard  again.  I  will  see  prosperity  in  all  its  gradations  spreading 
through  a  happy,  contented,  religious  land.  I  will  hear  the  hymn 
of  a  happy  people  go  forth  at  sunrise  to  God  in  praise  of  His 
mercies,  and  I  will  see  the  evening  sun  set  down  among  the  up- 
lifted hands  of  a  religious  and  free  population.  Every  blessing  that 
man  can  bestow  and  religion  can  confer  upon  the  faithful  heart 
shall  spread  throughout  the  land.  Stand  by  me,  join  with  me,  I 
will  say  be  obedient  to  me,  and  Ireland  shall  be  free. 


DEMANDING  JUSTICE 

Taken  from  a  speech  delivered  February  4,  1836,  in  the  House  of 
Commons. 

It  appears  to  me  impossible  to  suppose  that  the  House  will  con- 
sider me  presumptuous  in  wishing  to  be  heard  for  a  short  time  on 
this  question,  especially  after  the  distinct  manner  in  which  I  have 
been  alluded  to  in  the  course  of  the  debate.  If  I  had  no  other 
excuse,  that  would  be  sufficient ;  but  I  do  not  want  it ;  I  have 
another  and  a  better.  The  question  is  one  in  the  highest  degree 
interesting  to  the  people  of  Ireland.  It  is,  whether  we  mean  to  do 
justice  to  that  country,  whether  we  mean  to  continue  the  injustice 
which  has  been  already  done  to  it,  or  to  hold  out  the  hope  that  it 
will  be  treated  in  the  same  manner  as  England  and  Scotland.  That 
is  the  question.  We  know  what  ''  lip  service"  is ;  we  do  not  want 
that.  There  are  some  men  who  will  even  declare  that  they  are 
willing  to  refuse  justice  to  Ireland ;  while  there  are  others  who, 
though  they  are  ashamed  to  say  so,  are  ready  to  consummate  the 
iniquity,  and  they  do  so. 

England  never  did  do  justice  to  Ireland  —  she  never  did.  What 
we  have  got  of  it  we  have  extorted  from  men  opposed  to  us  on 
principle  —  against  which  principle  they  have  made  us  such  con- 
cessions as  we  have  obtained  from  them.  The  right  honorable 
baronet  opposite  [Sir  Robert  Peel]  says  he  does  not  distinctly 
understand  what  is  meant  by  a  principle.    I  believe  him.    He 


no  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

advocated  religious  exclusion  on  religious  motives ;  he  yielded  that 
point  at  length,  when  we  were  strong  enough  to  make  it  prudent  for 
him  to  do  so. 

Here  am  I  calling  for  justice  to  Ireland  ;  but  there  is  a  coalition 
to-night  —  not  a  base  unprincipled  one  —  God  forbid  !  —  it  is  an 
extremely  natural  one ;  I  mean  that  between  the  right  honorable 
baronet  and  the  noble  lord  the  member  for  North  Lancashire  (Lord 
Stanley).  It  is  a  natural  coalition  —  and  it  is  impromptu  ;  for  the 
noble  lord  informs  us  he  had  not  even  a  notion  of  taking  the  part 
he  has,  until  the  moment  at  which  he  seated  himself.  1  know  his 
candor ;  he  told  us  it  was  a  sudden  inspiration  which  induced  him 
to  take  part  against  Ireland.  I  believe  it  with  the  most  potent  faith, 
because  I  know  that  he  requires  no  preparation  for  voting  against 
the  interests  of  the  Irish  people. 

I  regret  much  that  I  have  been  thrown  upon  arguing  this  par- 
ticular question,  because  I  should  have  liked  to  have  dwelt  upon  a 
speech  which  has  been  so  graciously  delivered  from  the  throne 
to-day.  It  has  been  observed  that  the  object  of  a  King's  speech  is  to 
say  a  little  in  as  many  words  as  possible,  but  this  speech  contains 
more  things  than  words  —  it  contains  those  great  principles  which, 
adopted  in  practice,  will  be  most  salutary,  not  only  to  the  British 
Empire,  but  to  the  world. 

Years  are  coming  over  me,  but  my  heart  is  as  young  and  as 
ready  as  ever  in  the  service  of  my  country,  of  which  I  glory  in  being 
the  pensionary  and  the  hired  advocate.  I  stand  in  a  situation  in 
which  no  man  ever  stood  yet  —  the  faithful  friend  of  my  country, 
its  servant,  its  slave,  if  you  will ;  I  speak  its  sentiments  by  turns 
to  you  and  to  itself.  I  require  no  ^20,000,000  on  behalf  of 
Ireland ;  I  ask  you  only  for  justice ;  will  you,  can  you,  I  will  not 
say  dare  you,  refuse,  because  that  will  make  you  turn  the  other 
way.  I  implore  you,  as  English  gentlemen,  to  take  this  matter  into 
consideration  now,  because  you  never  had  such  an  opportunity 
of  conciliating.  Experience  makes  fools  wise ;  you  are  not  fools, 
but  you  have  yet  to  be  convinced.  I  cannot  forget  the  year  1825. 
We  begged  then  as  we  would  for  a  beggar's  boon ;  we  asked  for 


O'CONNELL  .  Ill 

emancipation  by  all  that  is  sacred  amongst  us.  I  have  no  other 
reason  for  adhering  to  the  ministry  than  because  they,  the  chosen 
representatives  of  the  people  of  England,  are  anxiously  determined 
to  give  the  same  measure  of  reform  to  Ireland  as  that  which  Eng- 
land has  received.  I  have  not  fatigued  myself,  but  the  House,  in 
coming  forward  upon  this  occasion.  I  may  be  laughed  and  sneered 
at  by  those  who  talk  of  my  power ;  but  what  has  created  it  but  the 
injustice  that  has  been  done  in  Ireland  ?  That  is  the  end  and  the 
means  of  the  magic,  if  you  please,  the  groundwork  of  my  influ- 
ence in  Ireland.  If  you  refuse  justice  to  that  country,  it  is  a 
melancholy  consideration  to  me  to  think  that  you  are  adding  sub- 
stantially to  that  power  and  influence,  while  you  are  wounding  my 
country  to  its  very  heart's  core ;  weakening  that  throne,  the  mon- 
arch who  sits  upon  which,  you  say  you  respect ;  severing  that  Union 
which,  you  say,  is  bound  together  by  the  tightest  links ;  and  with- 
holding that  justice  from  Ireland  which  she  will  not  cease  to  seek 
till  it  is  obtained.  Every  man  must  admit  that  the  course  I  am 
taking  is  the  legitimate  and  proper  course.  I  defy  any  man  to  say 
it  is  not.  Condemn  me  elsewhere  as  much  as  you  please,  but  this 
you  must  admit.  You  may  taunt  the  ministry  with  having  coalesced 
me,  you  may  raise  the  vulgar  cry  of  "  Irishman  and  Papist"  against 
me,  you  may  send  out  men  called  ministers  of  God  to  slander  and 
calumniate  me ;  they  may  assume  whatever  garb  they  please,  but 
the  question  comes  into  this  narrow  compass.  I  demand,  I  re- 
spectfully insist  on  equal  justice  for  Ireland,  on  the  same  principle 
by  which  it  has  been  administered  to  Scotland  and  England.  I  will 
not  take  less.    Refuse  me  that  if  you  can. 


HENRY  BROUGHAM 


Henry  Brougham  (i  779-1 868)  received  the  rudiments  of 
his  education  in  the  high  school  of  Edinburgh,  Scotland. 
He  was  distinguished  for  precocity  and  for  his  intuitive  per- 
ception of  whatever  subjects 
he  undertook.  While  fond  of 
pleasure  and  disposed  to  study 
by  starts,  he  was  a  good  stu- 
dent and  managed  to  do  more 
outside  reading  than  any  of 
his  fellows. 

At  the  age  of  sixteen  he 
entered  the  University  of 
Edinburgh,  and  in  a  short 
time  had  gained  high  distinc- 
tion in  the  sciences,  and  espe- 
cially in  mathematics.  He 
showed  remarkable  talent  for 
research,  and  at  the  age  of 
seventeen  produced  an  essay 
which  was  thought  worthy  of 
a  place  in  the  Edinhirgh  Philosophical  Transactions.  His 
talent  for  mathematical  research  soon  won  him  election  to 
the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh. 

On  completing  his  college  course  he  entered  upon  the 
study  of  law,  and  in  due  time  began  the  practice  of  his  pro- 
fession. It  is  sufficient  to  say  that  both  in  his  native  city  and 
in  London,  whither  he  moved  after  a  few  years,  he  gained  the 
highest  distinction  as  an  advocate. 


HENRY  BROUGHAM  II3 

Students  of  public  speaking  will  be  interested  to  learn  of 
the  kind  of  training  Brougham  received  in  the  art  in  which 
he  so  excelled.  When  less  than  fifteen  years  of  age  he  organ- 
ized a  debating  society  of  boys,  who  afterwards,  most  of  them, 
gained  distinction  themselves  as  speakers.  On  entering  the 
university  he  became  a  member  of  the  Speculative  Society, 
which  gave  its  members  opportunity  for  the  public  discussion 
of  leading  topics  of  the  day.  Here,  in  this  theater  of  debate, 
he  showed  the  leadership  which  afterwards  served  him  so  well 
as  presiding  officer  of  the  House  of  Lords.  This  brilliant 
enthusiast  set  himself  the  task  of  becoming  an  orator  of  dis- 
tinction in  the  public  life  of  England.  Not  even  Demosthenes 
more  deliberately  resolved  to  acquire  a  genius  for  oratory. 
He  committed  orations  of  the  great  orators,  not  so  much  that 
he  might  imitate  them  as  that  he  might  assimilate  their  ideas 
and  methods.  He  translated  classic  orations  for  the  purpose 
of  acquiring  an  extensive  vocabulary  and  expressive  diction, 
but  more  profitably  he  began  that  serious  authorship  which 
brought  him  into  immediate  prominence.  His  "Colonial 
Policy  of  European  Powers"  contained  an  immense  amount 
of  information  and  was  distinguished  by  a  "daring  spirit  of 
philosophical  inquiry."  After  removing  to  London  he  pub- 
lished the  "  State  of  the  Nation,"  which  created  such  favorable 
comment  as  to  open  the  way  for  his  election  to  Parliament. 
He  was  also  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Edinburgh  Review, 
and  for  more  than  twenty  years  was  an  editor  and  contributor. 
Here  he  began  to  bring  forth  those  keen  editorials  on  meas- 
ures of  reform,  which  sounded  like  speeches  from  the  tribune. 
He  spent  much  time  in  exposing  the  "perversions  of  public 
charities,  exposing  the  cruelties  of  the  criminal  code,  or  in 
rousing  public  attention  to  evils  resulting  from  irregularities 
in  the  administration  of  municipal  law."  Perusal  of  his 
speeches  and  editorials  shows  him  to  have  been  able  to  point 


114  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

out  defects  in  administration  and  suggest  reforms.  His  wide 
range  of  thought  and  his  facihty  of  pen  gave  him  that  foun- 
dation of  ideas,  that  fluency  of  expression,  and  that  sponta- 
neousness  so  essential  to  the  successful  orator. 

Physically  Brougham  was  well  fitted  for  the  work  of  the 
public  speaker.  He  had  a  powerful  constitution,  which  "stood 
the  wear  and  tear  of  ceaseless  activity  for  more  than  eighty 
years."  He  had  a  massive  forehead,  high  cheeks,  a  large 
mouth,  a  firm-set  jaw,  and  eyes  that  gleamed  from  under  his 
beetling  brows.  As  he  advanced  in  years  the  lines  in  his  face 
grew  hard  and  deep,  which  gave  him  at  times  a  stern  and 
lowering  expression.  His  voice  was  harsh  and  unmusical, 
even  hoarse  in  excitement,  but  it  was  remarkably  well  modu- 
lated. Every  look,  word,  and  act  indicated  exuberance  of 
strength  and  restless  energy,  and  heightened  the  effect  of  his 
manner,  which  was  rushing  and  resistless.  His  vehemence 
and  invective  often  caused  him  to  outrun  the  compass  of  his 
natural  voice  and  break  into  screams.  "For  fierce,  vengeful, 
and  irresistible  assault,"  says  a  biographer,  "Brougham  stands 
the  foremost  man  in  all  this  world."  His  object  was  not  so 
much  to  please  as  to  hit  hard.  His  tendency  to  monotony  of 
declamation  caused  his  enemies  to  call  him  "The  Harangue." 
His  tendency  toward  the  theatrical  in  oratory  is  also  to  be 
condemned.  At  the  close  of  the  following  passionate  appeal 
he  suited  his  action  literally  to  the  word  and  exhibited  the 
bad  taste  of  falling  on  his  knees  in  the  House  of  Lords  : 
"  I  solemnly  adjure  you,  I  warn  you,  I  implore  you,  yea,  on 
my  bended  knees,  I  supplicate  you,  reject  not  this  bill."  And 
yet  his  advice  to  young  speakers  was  to  cultivate  the  conver- 
sational basis.  "If  you  would  learn  to  speak  well,"  he  says, 
"learn  to  talk  well." 

Brougham's  style  was  modeled  after  that  of  Demosthenes, 
though  he  never  attained  the  clearness  and  simplicity  of  the 


HENRY  BROUGHAM  I15 

great  Athenian.  He  says  that  before  writing  one  of  his 
famous  perorations  he  read  and  repeated  Demosthenes'  ora- 
tions for  three  or  four  weeks.  While  his  style  was  affected 
favorably  by  translation  and  classic  imitation,  he  indulged  too 
much  in  dictionary  words,  involved  sentences,  and  parentheses. 
He  had  little  taste  for  simple  Saxon  English.  He  believed 
that  perfection  in  style  consisted  in  introducing  prepared 
passages  now  and  then.  To  this  end  his  finest  passages  were 
written  and  rewritten.  He  says  himself  :  "I  composed  the 
peroration  of  my  speech  for  the  queen,  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  twenty  times  over  at  least."  Lord  Granville  says  of 
him  :  "When  he  seemed  to  pause  in  search  of  thoughts  or 
words,  we  knew  that  he  had  a  sentence  ready,  cut  and  dried." 
While  felicitous  in  description,  he  lacked  in  imagination. 
Though  rough  in  style,  given  to  repetition  and  exaggeration, 
and  at  times  lame  in  his  reasoning,  yet  he  was  powerful  and 
effective  because  of  his  terrific  earnestness.  He  swept  his 
audience  by  his  array  of  facts,  his  abundant  wit,  and  the  force 
of  his  personality.  It  was  essentially  a  spoken  style,  to  be 
heard  rather  than  read  ;  for  by  tone  and  inflection,  by  light 
and  shade  of  expression,  he  was  able  to  impress  himself 
with  great  force  and  effect.  One  writer  says  of  him  that  he 
"accumulates  image  upon  image,  metaphor  upon  metaphor, 
argument  upon  argument,  till  the  hearer,  perplexed  by  the 
multiplicity  of  ideas,  almost  loses  the  thread  of  the  reasoning 
in  the  labyrinth  of  his  periods."  Goodrich,  in  his  "British 
Eloquence,"  discusses  this  point  as  follows  :  "His  style  has 
a  hearty  freshness  about  it,  which  springs  from  the  robust 
constitution  of  his  mind  and  the  energy  of  his  feelings.  He 
sometimes  disgusts  by  his  use  of  Latinized  English,  and 
seems  never  to  have  studied  our  language  in  the  true  sources 
of  its  strength  —  Shakespeare,  Milton,  and  the  English  Bible. 
His  greatest  fault  lies  in  the  structure  of  his  sentences.    He 


Il6  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

rarely  puts  forward  a  simple,  distinct  proposition.  New  ideas 
cluster  around  the  original  framework  of  his  thoughts,  and 
instead  of  throwing  them  into  separate  sentences  he  blends 
them  all  in  one  —  enlarging,  modifying,  interlacing  them 
together  till  the  whole  becomes  perplexed  and  cumbersome, 
in  the  attempt  to  crowd  an  entire  system  of  thought  into  a 
single  statement.  Notwithstanding  these  faults,  however,  we 
dwell  upon  his  speeches  with  breathless  interest.  They  are  a 
continual  strain  of  impassioned  argument,  intermingled  with 
fearful  sarcasm,  withering  invective,  lofty  declamation,  and 
the  earnest  majesty  of  a  mind  which  has  lost  every  other 
thought  in  the  magnitude  of  its  theme." 

Few  statesmen  have  had  such  diversity  of  gifts  and  such 
versatility  of  achievement.  In  this  he  much  resembles  our 
own  Franklin.  Both  were  men  of  letters,  both  were  men  of 
science,  both  were  publicists  and  orators.  Brougham  was  a 
great  and  growing  force  in  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  in  all  that  makes  for  good  citizenship.  ''He  forced 
the  fighting,"  says  a  historian,  "for  the  abolition  of  degrading 
punishments  in  the  army  and  navy ;  he  compelled  public 
attention  to  English  slaveholding  and  English  complicity  in 
the  slave  trade,  until  the  demand  for  action  could  not  be 
evaded  ;  he  dared  the  displeasure  of  the  Court  and  won  the 
lasting  enmity  of  the  King  by  taking  the  part  of  the  unfortu- 
nate Queen  Caroline ;  and  at  the  same  time  he  was  experi- 
menting in  optics,  studying  mathematics,  and  writing  scientific 
papers  for  the  English  Royal  Society  or  the  French  Academy 
of  Sciences."  His  debates  with  Canning  were  the  greatest 
parliamentary  contests  of  that  period.  One  author  calls  these 
men  the  "Coeur  de  Lion  and  the  Saladin  of  the  Senate, 
the  one  armed  with  a  battle-ax,  the  other  with  a  scimitar  ;  the 
one  athletic  and  powerful,  the  other  nimble,  adroit,  and  a 
consummate  master  of  fence." 


HENRY  BROUGHAM  11/ 

Brougham's  versatility  is  further  shown  in  the  great  variety 
of  subjects  on  which  he  spoke.  In  one  session  of  Pariiament 
alone  he  made  two  hundred  and  thirty  speeches.  He  sur- 
passed his  contemporaries  not  in  profoundness  of  learning  or 
force  of  logic,  but  in  general  knowledge,  in  fluency,  in  readi- 
ness of  attack  and  retort,  and  in  his  gift  of  wit  and  ridicule. 
It  is  the  test  of  a  great  mind  to  be  able  to  make  vigorous 
replies  to  powerful  attacks.  Such  assaults  stimulated  him  to 
his  best  work.  He  was  the  greatest  political  reformer  of  the 
day  and  proved  to  be  in  the  right,  for  most  of  his  reforms 
were  finally  adopted  by  the  British  people.  He  has  been 
sneered  at  as  a  lawyer,  but  hardly  a  decision  of  his  in  chancery 
was  ever  reversed.  This  is  evidence  that  his  place  as  a  leading 
member  of  the  "most  zealous  and  exacting  of  professions 
was  fairly  won."  And  his  prolific  work  as  an  author,  espe- 
cially his  critical  and  discriminative  treatment  of  the  "States- 
men of  the  time  of  George  IV,"  gives  him  a  well-deserved 
place  among  men  of  letters. 

Perhaps  the  most  masterly  of  Brougham's  speeches  was 
his  defense  of  Queen  Caroline,  in  the  House  of  Lords. 
Mathews,  in  his  "Oratory  and  Orators,"  speaks  of  this  as  "a 
masterpiece  of  dialectical  and  rhetorical  skill.  The  rank  and 
sex  of  his  client,  the  malignant  and  brutal  tyranny  of  her 
husband,  George  IV,  the  intense  interest  felt  by  the  nation 
in  the  result,  the  exalted  character  of  the  tribunal,  the  great 
array  of  hostile  talent,  learning,  and  eloquence — all  conspired 
to  call  forth  all  the  advocate's  powers." 


Il8  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 


PARLIAMENTARY  REFORM 

This  speech  was  delivered  in  the  House  of  Lords,  October  7,  1831.  The 
bill  up  for  discussion  proposed  a  reapportionment  of  members  for  the 
House  of  Commons.  The  population  of  England  had  greatly  increased. 
Many  large  cities,  like  Liverpool  and  Manchester,  were  without  representa- 
tives, and  some  places  which  had  one  or  two  representatives  had  sunk  into 
insignificance  as  far  as  population  was  concerned.  These  places  came  into 
the  hands  of  the  nobility  of  wealth,  and  seats  were  bought  and  sold  openly. 
Brougham  spoke  for  three  hours  on  the  bill  "with  a  keenness  of  rebuke, 
a  force  of  argument,  and  a  boldness  of  declamation  which  secured  him  a 
respectful  hearing,  and  extorted  the  confession  from  his  adversary.  Lord 
Lyndhurst,  that  a  more  powerful  speech  of  the  kind  had  never  been  deliv- 
ered in  the  House  of  Lords." 

I.    PROPERTY  QUALIFICATION 

I  have  listened,  my  lords,  with  most  profound  attention,  to  the 
debate  on  this  question,  which  has  lasted  during  the  past  five  days. 
My  noble  friend  proceeded  altogether  on  a  false  assumption ;  it 
was  on  a  fiction  of  his  own  brain,  on  a  device  of  his  own  imagi- 
nation, that  he  spoke  throughout.  He  first  assumed  that  the  bill 
meant  change  and  revolution,  and  on  change  and  revolution  he 
predicted  voluminously  and  successfully.  Practically  viewed,  re- 
garded as  an  argument  on  the  question  before  us,  it  is  to  be  wholly 
left  out  of  view ;  it  was  quite  beside  the  matter.  If  this  bill  be 
change  and  be  revolution,  there  is  no  resisting  the  conclusions  of 
my  noble  friend.  But  on  that  point  I  am  at  issue  with  him ;  and 
he  begins  by  taking  the  thing  in  dispute  for  granted.  I  deny  that 
this  bill  is  change,  in  the  bad  sense  of  the  word ;  nor  does  it  lead 
to,  nor  has  it  any  connection  with,  revolution  except  so  far  as  it 
has  a  direct  tendency  to  prevent  revolution. 

The  noble  earl  complained  that  the  Reform  Bill  shut  the  doors 
of  Parliament  against  the  eldest  sons  of  peers,  and  thus  deprived 
our  successors  of  the  best  kind  of  political  education.  My  lords, 
I  freely  admit  the  justice  of  his  panegyric  upon  this  constitutional 
training,  by  far  the  most  useful  which  a  statesman  can  receive; 
but  I  deny  that  the  measure  proposed  will  affect  it,  will  obstruct 


HENRY  BROUGHAM  II9 

the  passage  to  the  House  of  Commons ;  it  will  rather  clear  and 
widen  it  to  all  who,  like  your  Lordships'  sons,  ought  to  come.  My 
noble  friend  who  so  admirably  answered  the  noble  earl  in  a  speech 
distinguished  by  the  most  attractive  eloquence,  which  went  home 
to  every  heart,  has  already  destroyed  this  topic  by  referring  to  the 
most  notorious  facts,  by  simply  enumerating  the  open  counties 
represented  by  peers'  eldest  sons.  I  have  the  happiness  of  know- 
ing a  young  nobleman,  whom  to  know  is  highly  to  esteem.  He 
sat  for  a  nomination  borough ;  formed  his  own  opinion ;  decided 
for  the  bill ;  differed  with  his  family  ;  they  excluded  him  from  Par- 
liament, closing  against  him  at  least  that  avenue  to  a  statesman's 
best  education,  and  an  heir  apparent's  most  valued  preparation 
for  discharging  the  duties  of  the  peerage.  How  did  this  worthy 
noble  seek  to  reopen  the  door  thus  closed,  and  resume  his  political 
schooling  ?  He  threw  himself  upon  a  large  community,  canvassed 
a  populous  city,  and  started  as  a  candidate  for  the  suffrages  of 
thousands,  on  the  only  ground  which  was  open  to  such  solicitation 
—  he  avowed  himself  a  friend  of  the  bill.  The  borough  that  rejected 
him  was  Tiverton,  and  the  place  to  which  the  ejected  member 
resorted  for  the  means  of  completing  his  political  education  in  one 
house,  that  he  might  one  day  be  the  ornament  of  the  other,  was 
the  great  town  of  Liverpool. 

But  the  next  argument  of  the  noble  earl  brings  me  at  once  to 
a  direct  issue  with  him  upon  the  great  principle  of  the  measure. 
The  grand  charge  iterated  by  him,  and  reechoed  by  his  friends,  is 
that  population,  not  property,  is  assumed  by  the  bill  as  the  basis 
of  representation.  Now  this  is  a  mere  fallacy,  and  a  gross  fallacy. 
I  will  not  call  it  a  willful  misstatement;  but  I  will  demonstrate  that 
two  perfectly  different  things  are,  in  different  parts  of  this  short 
proposition,  carefully  confounded,  and  described  under  the  same 
equivocal  name.  If  by  basis  of  representation  is  meant  the  ground 
upon  which  it  was  deemed  right,  by  the  framers  of  the  bill,  that 
some  places  should  send  members  to  Parliament  and  others  not, 
then  I  admit  that  there  is  some  foundation  for  the  assertions ;  but 
then  it  only  applies  to  the  new  towns,  and  also  it  has  no  bearing 


I20  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

whatever  upon  the  question.  For  the  objection  to  taking  mere 
population  as  a  criterion  in  giving  the  elective  franchise  is,  that 
such  a  criterion  gives  you  electors  without  a  qualification,  and  is, 
in  fact,  universal  suffrage.  And  herein,  my  lords,  consists  the 
grievous  unfairness  of  the  statement  I  am  sifting;  it  purposely 
mixes  together  different  matters,  and  clothes  them  with  an  am- 
biguous covering,  in  order,  by  means  of  the  confusion  and  the  dis- 
guise, to  insinuate  that  universal  suffrage  is  at  the  root  of  the  bill. 
Let  us  strip  off  this  false  garb.  Is  there  in  the  bill  anything  resem- 
bling universal  suffrage  ?  Is  it  not  framed  upon  the  very  opposite 
principles  ? 

I  utterly  deny  that  population  is  the  test,  and  property  disre- 
garded, in  arranging  the  borough  representation.  The  franchise  is 
conferred  upon  householders  only.  Is  not  this  a  restriction  ?  Even 
if  the  right  of  voting  has  been  given  to  all  householders,  still  the 
suffrage  would  not  have  been  universal ;  it  would  have  depended 
on  property,  not  on  members ;  and  it  would  have  been  a  gross 
misrepresentation  to  call  population  the  basis  of  the  bill. 

My  lords,  I  have  admitted  that  there  is  some  truth  in  the  asser- 
tion of  population  being  made  the  criterion  of  title  in  towns  to  send 
representatives,  though  it  has  no  application  to  the  present  contro- 
versy. Some  criterion  we  were  forced  to  take ;  for  nobody  holds 
that  each  place  should  choose  members  severally.  A  line  must  be 
drawn  somewhere,  and  how  could  we  find  a  better  guide  than 
population  ?  That  is  the  general  test  of  wealth,  extent,  importance ; 
and  therefore  substantially,  though  not  in  name,  it  is  really  the 
test  of  property.  The  whole  foundation  of  the  measure,  therefore, 
and  on  which  all  its  parts  rest,  is  property  alone  and  not  at  all 
population. 

My  lords,  I  have  been  speaking  of  the  manner  in  which  owners 
of  boroughs  traffic,  and  exercise  the  right  of  sending  members  to 
Parliament.  I  have  dwelt  on  no  extreme  cases ;  I  have  adverted  to 
what  passes  every  day  before  my  eyes.  See  now  the  fruits  of  the 
system,  also,  by  every  day's  experience.  The  Crown  is  stripped  of 
its  just  weight  in  the  government  of  the  country  by  the  masters  of 


HENRY  BROUGHAM  121 

rotten  boroughs ;  they  may  combine ;  they  do  combine,  and  their 
union  enables  them  to  dictate  their  own  terms.  The  people  are 
stripped  of  their  most  precious  rights  by  the  masters  of  rotten  bor- 
oughs, for  they  have  usurped  the  elective  franchise,  and  thus  gained 
an  influence  in  Parliament  which  enables  them  to  prevent  its  res- 
toration. Their  nominees  must  vote  according  to  the  interest  not 
of  the  nation  at  large,  whom  they  affect  to  represent,  but  of  a  few 
individuals,  whom  alone  they  represent  in  reality.  But  so  perverted 
have  men's  minds  become,  by  the  gross  abuse  to  which  they  have 
been  long  habituated,  that  the  grand  topic  has  been  that  our  reform 
will  open  the  right  of  voting  to  vast  numbers  and  interfere  with 
the  monopoly  of  the  few  ;  while  we  evade,  as  it  is  pleasantly  called, 
the  property  of  the  peers  and  other  borough  holders.  Why,  say 
they,  it  absolutely  amounts  to  representation !  And  wherefore  should 
it  not,  I  say  ?  and  what  else  ought  it  to  be }  Are  we  not  upon  the 
question  of  representation,  and  none  other?  Are  we  not  dealing 
with  the  subject  of  a  representative  body  for  the  people  .?  The  ques- 
tion is  how  we  may  best  make  the  people's  House  of  Parliament 
represent  the  people ;  and  in  answer  to  the  plan  proposed,  we  hear 
nothing  but  the  exclamations,  "  Why,  this  scheme  of  yours  is  a  rank 
representation !  It  is  downright  election !  It  is  nothing  more  or 
less  than  giving  the  people  a  voice  in  the  choice  of  their  own 
representatives !  It  is  absolutely  the  most  strange,  unheard  of, 
unimagined,  and  most  abominable,  intolerable,  incredibly  inconsist- 
ent and  utterly  pernicious  novelty,  that  the  members  chosen  should 
have  electors,  and  f/iat  the  constituents  should  have  somethifig  to  do 
with  returning  the  members  /  "  • 


122  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

II.    FULL  AND   FREE  REPRESENTATION 

Brougham  declares  that  the  bill  is  not  an  innovation  but  a  return  to 
former  principles  ;  that  the  purpose  of  government  is  to  conform  things  to 
the  progress  of  the  times ;  that  the  success  of  the  measure  lies  in  the  char- 
acter and  power  of  the  middle  class  of  Englishmen ;  and  that  it  will  pre- 
vent the  buying  of  seats  in  Parliament.  Public  sentiment  calls  for  reform 
in  the  franchise.  This  sentiment  must  be  met  with  conciliation,  not  con- 
tempt, and  great  benefits  will  accrue  from  its  adoption. 

If  ever  I  felt  confident  in  any  prediction,  it  is  in  this,  that  the 
restoration  of  Parliament  to  its  legitimate  office  of  representing 
truly  the  public  opinion  will  overthrow  the  tyranny  of  which  noble 
lords  are  so  ready  to  complain,  who,  by  keeping  out  the  lawful 
sovereign,  in  truth  support  the  usurper.  Let  but  the  country  have 
a  full  and  free  representation,  and  to  that  will  men  look  for  the 
expression  of  public  opinion,  and  the  press  will  no  more  be  able 
to  dictate,  as  now,  when  none  else  can  speak  the  sense  of  the 
people.  Wifl  its  influence  wholly  cease  ?  God  forbid !  Its  just 
influence  will  continue,  but  confined  within  safe  and  proper  bounds. 
It  will  continue,  long  may  it  continue  to  watch  the  conduct  of 
public  men,  to  watch  the  proceedings  even  of  a  reformed  legis- 
lature, to  watch  the  people  themselves  —  a  safe,  an  innoxious,  a 
useful  instrument,  to  enlighten  and  improve  mankind!  But  its 
overgrown  power,  its  assumption  to  speak  in  the  name  of  the 
nation,  its  pretension  to  dictate  and  to  command,  will  cease  with 
the  abuse  upon  which  alone  it  is  founded,  and  will  be  swept  away, 
together  with  the  other  creatures  of  the  same  abuse,  which  now 
"  fright  our  isle  from  its  propriety." 

Will  men  never  learn  wisdom,  even  from  their  own  experience  ? 
Will  they  never  believe  till  it  be  too  late,  that  the  surest  way  to 
prevent  immoderate  desires  being  formed,  aye,  and  unjust  demands 
enforced,  is  to  grant  in  due  season  the  moderate  requests  of  jus- 
tice? You  stand,  my  lords,  on  the  brink  of  a  great  event;  you 
are  in  the  crisis  of  a  whole  nation's  hopes  and  fears.  An  awful 
importance  hangs  over  your  decision.  Pause,  ere  you  plunge ! 
There  may  not  be  any  retreat !    It  behooves  you  to  shape  your 


HENRY  BROUGHAM  1 23 

conduct  by  the  mighty  occasion.  They  tell  you  not  to  be  afraid 
of  personal  consequences  in  discharging  your  duty.  I  too  would 
ask  you  to  banish  all  fears ;  but,  above  all,  that  most  mischievous, 
most  despicable  fear,  the  fear  of  being  thought  afraid. 

We  stand  in  a  truly  critical  position.  If  we  reject  the  bill, 
through  fear  of  being  thought  to  be  intimidated,  we  may  lead  the 
life  of  retirement  and  quiet,  but  the  hearts  of  the  millions  of  our 
fellow  citizens  are  gone  forever ;  thfeir  affections  are  estranged  ;  we 
and  our  order  and  its  privileges  are  the  objects  of  the  people's 
hatred,  as  the  only  obstacles  which  stand  between  them  and  the 
gratification  of  their  most  passionate  desire.  The  whole  body  of 
the  aristocracy  must  expect  to  share  this  fate  and  be  exposed  to 
feelings  such  as  these.  For  I  hear  it  constantly  said  that  the  bill 
is  rejected  by  all  the  aristocracy.  Favor,  and  a  good  number  of 
supporters,  our  adversaries  allow  it  has  among  the  people ;  the 
ministers,  too,  are  for  it ;  but  the  aristocracy,  say  they,  is  strenu- 
ously opposed  to  it.  I  broadly  deny  this  silly,  thoughtless  asser- 
tion. What,  my  lords !  the  aristocracy  set  themselves  in  a  mass 
against  the  people  —  they  who  sprang  from  the  people,  are  sup- 
ported by  the  people,  are  the  natural  chiefs  of  the  people !  They 
set  themselves  against  the  people,  for  whom  peers  are  ennobled, 
bishops  consecrated,  kings  anointed  —  the  people  to  serve  whom 
Parliament  itself  has  an  existence,  and  the  monarchy  and  all 
its  institutions  are  constituted,  and  without  whom  none  of  them 
could  exist  for  an  hour !  The  assertion  of  unreflecting  men  is  too 
monstrous  to  be  endured.  As  a  member  of  this  House  I  deny 
it  with  indignation.  I  repel  it  with  scorn,  as  a  calumny  upon  us 
all.  And  yet  there  are  those  who  even  within  these  walls  speak 
of  the  bill  augmenting  so  much  the  strength  of  the  democracy  as 
to  endanger  the  other  orders  of  the  state ;  and  so  they  charge  its 
authors  with  promoting  anarchy  and  rapine.  Why,  my  lords, 
have  its  authors  nothing  to  fear  from  democratic  spoliation  ?  The 
fact  is,  that  there  are  members  of  the  present  cabinet  who  possess, 
one  or  two  of  them  alone,  far  more  property  than  any  two  admin- 
istrations within  my  recollection;    and  all  of  them  have  ample 


124  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

wealth.  I  need  hardly  say  I  include  not  myself,  who  have  little 
or  none.  But  even  of  myself  I  will  say,  that  whatever  I  have 
depends  upon  the  stability  of  existing  institutions,  and  it  is  as 
dear  to  me  as  the  princely  possessions  of  any  among  us. 

My  lords,  I  do  not  disguise  the  intense  solicitude  which  I  feel 
for  the  event  of  this  debate,  because  I  know  full  well  that  the 
peace  of  the  country  is  involved  in  the  issue.  I  cannot  look  with- 
out dismay  at  the  rejection  of  the  measure.  But  grievous  as 
may  be  the  consequences  of  a  temporary  defeat,  temporary  it  can 
only  be,  for  its  ultimate,  and  even  speedy  success,  is  certain. 
Nothing  can  now  stop  it.  Do  not  suffer  yourselves  to  be  per- 
suaded that  even  if  the  present  ministers  were  driven  from  the 
helm,  any  one  could  steer  you  through  the  troubles  which  sur- 
round you  without  reform.  But  our  successors  would  take  up  the 
task  in  circumstances  far  less  auspicious.  Under  them,  you  would 
be  fain  to  grant  a  bill,  compared  with  which  the  one  we  now 
proffer  you  is  moderate  indeed.  What  may  follow  your  course  of 
obstinacy,  if  persisted  in,  I  cannot  take  upon  me  to  predict  nor 
do  I  wish  to  conjecture.  But  this  I  know  full  well,  that,  as  sure 
as  man  is  mortal,  and  to  err  is  human,  justice  deferred  enhances 
the  price  at  which  you  must  purchase  safety  and  peace ;  nor  can 
you  expect  to  gather  in  another  crop  than  they  did  who  went  be- 
fore you,  if  you  persevere  in  your  utterly  abominable  husbandry, 
of  sowing  injustice  and  reaping  rebellion. 

But  among  the  awful  considerations  that  now  bow  down  my 
mind,  there  is  one  that  stands  preeminent  above  the  rest.  You 
are  the  highest  judicature  in  the  realm  ;  you  sit  here  as  judges, 
and  decide  all  causes,  civil  and  criminal,  without  appeal.  It  is  a 
judge's  first  duty  never  to  pronounce  sentence  in  the  most  trifling 
case  without  hearing.  Will  you  make  this  an  exception }  Are  you 
really  prepared  to  determine,  but  not  to  hear,  the  mighty  cause 
upon  which  a  nation's  hopes  and  fears  hang?  You  are.  Then 
beware  your  decision !  Rouse  not,  I  beseech  you,  a  peace-loving, 
but  a  resolute  people  ;  alienate  not  from  your  body  the  affections 
of  a  whole  empire.    As  your  friend,  as  the  friend  of  my  order,  as 


HENRY  BROUGHAM  I25 

a  friend  of  my  country,  as  the  faithful  servant  of  my  Sovereign,  I 
counsel  you  to  assist  with  your  uttermost  efforts  in  preserving  the 
peace  and  upholding  and  perpetuating  the  Constitution.  There- 
fore I  pray  and  exhort  you  not  to  reject  this  measure.  By  all  you 
hold  most  dear ;  by  all  the  ties  that  bind  every  one  of  us  to  our 
common  order  and  our  common  country,  I  solemnly  adjure  you, 
I  wsLvn  you,  I  implore  you  —  yea,  on  my  bended  knees,  I  sup- 
plicate you  —  reject  not  this  bill ! 


JOHN   BRIGHT 


John  Bright  (i8i  1-1889)  came  of  sturdy  Quaker  ancestry. 
His  education  in  the  schools  was  neither  thorough  nor  com- 
prehensive.   He  knew  Httle  of  the  classics.    His  school  life  at 

Ackworth  and^  Newton  acad- 
emies ended  when  he  was 
fifteen  years  of  age.  But 
though  he  was  actively  en- 
gaged with  his  father  in  the 
cotton  mills  of  Rochdale,  he 
spent  his  evenings  in  dili- 
gent study  for  many  years. 
History,  biography,  and  Eng- 
lish literature,  especially  po- 
etry, were  his  favorite  studies. 
He  knew  Shakespeare,  Mil- 
ton, and  the  Bible  almost  by 
heart.  This  accounts  in  great 
measure  for  the  purity  and 
the  simplicity  of  his  diction. 
Untiring  industry  in  private 
study,  quick  intelligence,  and 
a  great  faculty  of  observation  made  him  one  of  the  best  in- 
formed men  of  England. 

John  Bright  is  an  example  of  what  can  be  accomplished 
in  public  speaking  by  the  most  persistent  and  determined 
practice  of  the  art.  His  first  public  speech,  at  the  age  of 
nineteen,  on  the  subject  of  temperance,  was  not  a  success.  He 
was  nervous  and  excited,  and  though  intensely  interested  in 

126 


JOHN  BRIGHT  \2J 

his  subject,  he  knew  not  what  to  say.  He  worried  through  it 
and  sat  down  in  confusion.  He  then  and  there  determined 
that  he  would  master  himself  and  learn  how  to  express  his 
thoughts  with  more  force  and  effect.  To  this  end  he  organized 
a  literary  and  philosophical  society  in  Rochdale,  and  in  the 
discussions  that  came  up,  having  carefully  prepared  himself, 
he  learned  by  degrees  to  say  with  some  credit  to  himself  what 
was  in  his  mind. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-one  he  made  another  speech  before 
a  Bible  society,  which  quite  carried  away  his  audience.  He 
had  carefully  written  his  speech,  elaborated  it,  and  committed 
it  to  memory.  But  the  effort  did  not  please  him.  When  con- 
gratulated by  a  clergyman  who  was  present  to  address  the 
same  meeting,  he  said  that  such  efforts  ''cost  him  too  dearly," 
and  asked  the  clergyman  how  it  was  that  he  spoke  so  easily. 
He  was  advised  ''not  to  burden  the  memory  too  much,  but, 
having  carefully  prepared  and  committed  portions  where  spe- 
cial effort  was  desired,  merely  to  put  down  other  things  in  the 
desired  order,  leaving  the  wording  of  them  to  the  moment." 
That  was  Bright's  first  lesson  in  public  speaking.  After  a  few 
years  of  writing  and  committing  he  adopted  essentially  the 
plan  of  his  friend  and  followed  it  through  life.  On  being 
asked  in  regard  to  his  method  of  preparation  he  said  :  "Not 
for  more  than  thirty  years  have  I  been  in  the  habit  of  writing 
out  my  speeches.  The  labor  of  writing  is  bad  enough,  and  the 
labor  of  committing  to  memory  would  be  intolerable ;  and 
speeches  read  to  a  meeting  are  not  likely  to  be  received  with 
much  favor.  It  is  enough  to  think  over  what  is  to  be  said,  and 
to  form  an  outline  in  a  few  brief  notes.  But  first  of  all  a  real 
knowledge  of  the  subject  is  required ;  with  that,  practice 
should  make  speaking  easy."  At  another  time  he  said :  "If 
you  mean  to  speak,  first  know  what  you  are  going  to  say  ;  the 
next  point  is  to  speak  very  deliberately ;  every  word,  in  fact 


128  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

every  syllable,  should  be  expressed.  If  you  do  this,  and  if  you 
have  matter  worth  listening  to,  you  will  be  listened  to,  and 
you  will  acquire  a  confidence  and  ease  you  will  not  acquire  in 
any  other  way."  It  was  his  effort  to  be  logical  and  full  of 
ideas,  and  his  habit  of  shaping  his  points  by  conversation 
with  friends  on  the  ideas  he  held,  that  made  his  speeches  both 
acceptable  and  practical  in  governmental  affairs  and  made  him 
one  of  the  most  useful  of  legislators.  It  should  be  noted  that 
while  the  body  of  his  argument  was  freely  extemporized,  his 
perorations  were  very  carefully  prepared,  sometimes  written 
and  rewritten  before  they  were  satisfactory  to  him. 

Bright's  style  of  oratory  was  characterized  by  energy  and 
elegance.  He  believed  in  using  the  English  of,  the  common 
people.  His  use  of  the  Anglo-Saxon,  the  language  of  the 
plain  folks,  has  caused  him  to  be  called  "the  master  of 
monosyllables,"  His  diction  is  clear,  forcible,  even  bold  and 
picturesque.  His  taste  in  the  choice  of  words  is  infallible. 
Few  public  men  possessed  a  style  of  address  more  to  be 
desired  by  the  student  of  oratory.  Gladstone  called  him  "one 
of  the  chief  guardians  of  the  purity  of  the  English  tongue." 
There  was  no  superfluous  ornament.  He  never  gushed.  His 
exposition  was  clear  and  persuasive,  his  illustrations  homely, 
and  his  argument  direct  and  convincing.  Charles  Kendall 
Adams  speaks  of  him  as  the  "most  eloquent  of  the  English 
Liberals."  And  Lord  Salisbury  once  said  :  "He  was  the 
greatest  master  of  English  oratory  that  this  generation  —  I 
may  say  several  generations  back  —  has  produced.  I  have 
met  men  who  have  heard  Pitt  and  Fox,  and  in  whose  judg- 
ment their  eloquence,  at  the  best,  was  inferior  to  the  finest 
efforts  of  John  Bright." 

His  method  of  delivery  was  direct  and  earnest.  Passages  of 
poetry  or  other  literature  which  he  introduced  in  his  speeches 
were  quoted  with  exquisite  expression.    His  rich  and  powerful 


JOHN  BRIGHT  129 

voice,  his  graceful  and  appropriate  action,  his  dignified  and 
commanding  manner,  added  a  charm  to  his  every  utterance. 
He  spoke  rarely,  but  was  listened  to  with  profound  interest. 
Opponents  never  questioned  his  integrity.  His  well-known 
honesty  of  purpose,  his  candor  and  sincerity,  his  fondness  for 
doing  good,  helped  him  to  accomplish  much  for  the  people 
and  made  his  appeals  all-persuasive  in  Commons.  The  honest 
tenets  of  his  faith  stamped  alike  his  lifd  and  his  oratory.  ''Be 
just  and  fear  not "  was  a  maxim  that  made  "  Honest  John 
Bright,"  as  he  was  called,  never  flinch  in  his  support  of  what 
he  believed  to  be  a  righteous  cause.  His  advocacy  of  the  repeal 
of  the  obnoxious  Corn  Laws  brought  him  into  prominence 
and  gave  him  a  seat  in  Commons.  For  years  he  anci  Cobden 
had  been  the  leaders  of  the  agitation,  and  when  the  sentiment 
had  reached  its  height  and  he  was  on  the  eve  of  a  trium- 
phant election  to  Parliament,  he  made  this  eloquent  peroration  : 
"There  have  been  convulsions  of  a  most  dire  character,  which 
have  overturned  old  established  monarchies  and  have  hurled 
thrones  and  scepters  to  the  dust.  There  have  been  revolutions 
which  have  brought  down  most  powerful  aristocracies,  and 
swept  them  from  the  face  of  the  earth  forever.  But  never 
was  there  a  revolution  yet  which  destroyed  the  people.  And 
whatever  may  come  as  a  consequence  of  the  state  of  things 
in  this  country,  of  this  we  may  rest  assured,  that  the  common 
people,  that  the  great  bulk  of  our  countrymen,  will  remain 
and  survive  the  shock,  though  it  may  be  that  the  crown  and 
the  aristocracy  and  the  church  may  be  leveled  with  the  dust, 
and  rise  no  more.  We  have  a  right  to  clamor ;  and  so  long 
as  I  have  breath,  so  long  as  I  have  physical  power,  so  long 
as  I  have  intellect,  and  so  long  as  I  have  memory  and  voice  to 
express  opinion,  so  long  will  I  clamor  against  the  oppression 
which  I  see  to  exist,  and  in  favor  of  the  rights  of  the  great 
body  of  the  people." 


I30  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

Another  evidence  of  his  independence  of  thought  and  his 
courage  is  shown  in  his  opposition  to  the  war  against  Russia 
in  Crimea,  when  he  stood  almost  alone  against  the  war  party 
in  Commons  and  uttered  a  solemn  warning  which  all  Eng- 
lishmen now  feel  should  have  been  heeded :  *'  Even  if  I 
were  alone,  if  my  voice  were  the  solitary  one  raised  amid  the 
din  of  arms  and  the  clamors  of  a  venal  press,  I  should  have 
the  priceless  consolation  that  I  have  never  uttered  one  word 
that  could  promote  the  squandering  of  my  country's  treasure 
or  the  spilling  of  one  single  drop  of  my  country's  blood." 
Equally  courageous  and  quite  alone  was  Bright  in  his  oppo- 
sition to  the  measure  looking  to  the  recognition  of  the  South- 
ern Confederacy  :  ''No  war  in  two  hundred  years  has  been 
just  and  necessary  but  the  war  to  sustain  the  Union."  ''  I  am 
one  in  this  audience  and  one  in  the  citizenship  of  this  country, 
but  if  all  other  tongues  are  silent,  mine  shall  speak  for  that 
policy  which  gives  hope  to  the  bondmen  of  the  South,  and 
which  tends  to  generous  thoughts,  and  generous  words,  and 
generous  deeds  between  the  two  great  nations  who  speak  the 
English  language,  and  from  their  origin  are  alike  entitled  to 
the  English  name." 

John  Bright  had  an  attractive  personality  and  possessed  in 
a  high  degree  the  physical  qualifications  of  the  orator.  He 
was  of  medium  height,  rather  stout,  with  a  healthy,  ruddy 
complexion,  a  full  open  face,  and  a  mouth  and  chin  expressive 
of  great  firmness.  He  had  a  broad  head,  a  moderately  high 
forehead,  brown  hair,  and  deep  blue  eyes  that  were  penetrating 
and  kindly  and  full  of  moral  earnestness.  His  fine  presence, 
his  genial  but  determined  manner,  his  sympathy  with  humanity, 
and  his  responsiveness  to  noble  and  generous  impulses  gave 
him,  in  a  marked  degree,  what  may  be  called  the  oratorical 
temperament.  Furthermore,  he  was  thoroughly  independent 
in  his  acts.    No  one  ever  accused  him  of  partisanship.    The 


JOHN  BRIGHT  I3I 

most  renowned  of  Quakers,  yet  he  was  morally  the  most 
pugnacious  of  statesmen,  determined  to  the  point  of  stub- 
bornness. Retorts  and  ridicule  could  not  move  him.  He 
raised  the  tone  of  politics  because  the  politicians  were  too 
eager  for  his  good  opinion  to  risk  his  determined  opposition. 
The  soundness  of  his  views,  the  depth  of  his  conviction,  the 
honesty  of  his  purposes,  animated  as  they  were  by  a  grand 
will,  furnished  the  spirit  of  his  eloquence. 

A  prophetic  statesman,  everything  he  advocated  was  carried 
through  or  is  about  to  be.  "By  intuition  he  saw  the  thing 
which  ought  to  be,  and  in  the  face  of  current  opinion  he  set 
about  the  work  of  having  it  done,  and  no  statesman  has 
made  fewer  mistakes  or  won  more  distinguished  or  beneficent 
success." 

What  shall  be  said  of  his  character  and  influence  ?  Trained 
in  the  simple  ways  and  godliness  of  the  Quakers,  unostenta- 
tious in  manner,  with  the  golden  rule  as  his  law,  no  one,  not 
even  Mr.  Gladstone,  exercised  a  greater  and  steadier  influ- 
ence in  popular  opinion.  Free  from  the  taint  of  selfishness  or 
deceit,  fond  of  being  helpful,  he  devoted  his  life  to  the  im- 
provement of  the  laboring  classes  and  to  the  advancement  of 
the  poor  and  the  oppressed.  Gladstone  thus  eloquently  speaks 
of  his  most  distinguished  colleague  :  ''The  character  of  the 
man  lies  deeper  than  his  intellect,  deeper  than  his  eloquence, 
deeper  than  anything  that  can  be  described  or  placed  upon  the 
surface ;  and  the  supreme  eulogy  I  apprehend  to  be  his  due 
is  this  :  that  he  lifted  political  life  to  a  higher  elevation  and  a 
loftier  standard,  and  that  he  has  thereby  bequeathed  to  his 
country  the  character  of  a  statesman  who  can  be  made  the 
subject  not  only  of  admiration,  and  not  only  of  gratitude,  but 
even  what  I  do  not  exaggerate  in  calling,  as  it  has  been  well 
called  already  by  one  of  his  admirers,  the  object  of  a  rever- 
ential contemplation." 


132  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

FREE  TRADE 

This  speech  was  delivered  in  Covent  Garden  Theater,  London,  Decem- 
ber 19,  1845.  There  was  in  progress  a  great  agitation  for  the  repeal  of  the 
Corn  Laws.  The  Anti-Corn-Law  League  had  held  many  mass  meetings 
in  London  and  throughout  England  in  the  chief  commercial  centers. 
Bright  was  the  most  prominent  advocate  of  free  trade.  It  was  at  one  of 
the  great  London  meetings,  just  after  the  resignation  of  Sir  Robert  Peel, 
that  the  following  speech  was  delivered. 

I.    THE  ODIOUS  CORN  LAWS 

Within  the  last  fifty  years  trade  has  done  much  for  the  people 
of  England.  Our  population  has  greatly  increased ;  our  villages 
have  become  towns,  and  our  small  towns  large  cities.  The  con- 
temned class  of  manufacturers  and  traders  assumed  another  and  a 
very  different  position,  and  the  great  proprietors  of  the  soil  now 
find  that  there  are  other  men  and  interests  to  be  consulted  in  this 
kingdom  besides  those  of  whom  they  have  taken  such  great  care 
through  the  legislation  which  they  have  controlled.  In  the  varying 
fortunes  of  this  contest  we  have  already  seen  one  feeble  and 
attenuated  administration  overthrown,  and  now  see  another,  which 
every  man  thought  powerful  and  robust,  prostrate  in  the  dust.  It 
is  worth  while  that  the  people,  and  that  statesmen,  should  regard 
this  result,  and  learn  from  it  a  lesson.  What  was  it  that  brought 
the  Whig  government  down  in  1841,  and  what  was  it  that  has 
brought  down  Sir  Robert  Peel  now  ?  Have  not  we  good  grounds 
for  asserting  that  the  Com  Law  makes  it  impossible  for  any  party 
longer  to  govern  England  during  its  continuance  ?  No  statesman 
dare  now  take  ofhce  upon  the  understanding  that  he  is  to  main- 
tain the  system  which  the  Protectionists  have  asserted  to  be  a 
fundamental  principle  in  the  Constitution  of  the  kingdom. 

We  have  heard  that  the  Whig  government  left  the  country  in 
great  distress,  and  its  financial  affairs  in  much  embarrassment.  But 
no  one  has  ever  pointed  out  the  particular  acts  of  that  government 
which  made  the  revenue  deficient.  It  was  not  the  taking  off  of 
taxes  injudiciously — it  was  not  a  more  than  ordinarily  extravagant 


JOHN  BRIGHT  133 

expenditure  of  the  public  funds  which  produced  that  effect ;  but  it 
was  the  collapse  of  the  national  industry — it  was  the  failure  of  the 
sources  whence  flow  the  prosperity  of  our  trade,  a  calamity  which 
arose  from  deficient  harvests,  those  deficient  harvests  being  destruc- 
tive to  our  trade  and  industry ;  because  the  Corn  Law  denied  to  us 
the  power  of  repairing  the  mischief  by  means  of  foreign  supplies. 
Great  landed  proprietors  may  fancy  that  trade  is  of  small  importance ; 
but  of  this  we  are  at  present  assured,  that  no  government  can  main- 
tain its  popularity  or  keep  up  its  power  so  long  as  we  have  defi- 
cient harvests  and  restrictions  on  the  importation  of  foreign  food. 

Under  such  a  state  of  things,  how  is  social  order  to  be  pre- 
served ?  When  prices  are  high  the  revenue  invariably  declines,  and 
higher  taxes  must  be  imposed  ;  general  discontent  prevails,  because 
there  is  general  suffering;  and  the  government,  whatever  be  its 
party  name,  or  however  numerous  may  be  its  supporters  in  either 
House  of  Parliament,  must,  under  these  circumstances,  first  be- 
come unpopular  and  then  finally  become  extinct.  We  are  now 
brought  to  this  conclusion,  that  the  continuous  government  of 
this  country  by  any  administration  is  totally  incompatible  with  the 
maintenance  of  the  Com  Laws.  Sir  Robert  Peel,  by  his  sudden 
retirement  from  office,  has  given  his  testimony  to  the  fact.  But 
there  are  men  who  deny  it ;  they  say  that  they  are  glad  the 
"  organized  hypocrisy  "  is  at  an  end ;  that  they  are  delighted  that 
"  the  reign  of  humbug  is  over  "  ;  that  they  are  astounded  at  the 
perfidy  and  treachery  of  the  men  whom  they  lifted  into  office.  It 
is  neither  perfidy  nor  treachery  of  which  they  have  to  complain. 
Sir  Robert  Peel  cannot,  any  more  than  other  men,  do  impossibili- 
ties ;  and  it  is  an  impossibility  to  govern  this  country  with  the 
Corn  Law  in  existence. 

This  contest  has  now  been  waged  for  seven  years ;  it  was  a 
serious  one  when  commenced,  but  it  is  a  far  more  serious  one 
now.  Since  the  time  when  we  first  came  to  London  to  ask  the  at- 
tention of  Parliament  to  the  question  of  the  Corn  Law,  two  million 
human  beings  have  been  added  to  the  population  of  the  United 
Kingdom.     The  table  is  here  as  before;  the  food  is  spread  in 


134  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

about  the  same  quantity  as  before ;  but  two  millions  of  fresh 
guests  have  arrived,  and  that  circumstance  makes  the  question  a 
more  serious  one,  both  for  the  government  and  for  us.  These  two 
millions  are  so  many  arguments  for  the  Anti-Corn-Law  League ; 
so  many  emphatic  condemnations  of  the  policy  of  this  iniquitous 
law.  I  see  them  now  in  my  mind's  eye  ranged  before  me,  old  men 
and  young  children,  all  looking  to  the  government  for  bread  ;  some 
endeavoring  to  resist  the  stroke  of  famine,  clamorous  and  turbu- 
lent, but  still  arguing  with  us ;  some  dying  mute  and  uncomplaining.- 
Multitudes  have  died  of  hunger  in  the  United  Kingdom  since  we 
first  asked  the  government  to  repeal  the  Corn  Law,  and  although 
the  great  and  powerful  may  not  regard  those  who  suffer  mutely 
and  die  in  silence,  yet  the  recording  angel  will  note  down  their 
patient  endurance  and  the  heavy  guilt  of  those  by  whom  they  have 
been  sacrificed. 

We  have  had  a  succession  of  skirmishes ;  we  now  approach  the 
final  conflict.  It  may  be  worth  while  to  inquire  who  and  what  are 
the  combatants  in  this  great  battle .  Looking  in  the  columns  of 
the  newspapers,  and  attending,  as  I  have  attended,  hundreds  of 
meetings  held  to  support  the  principles  of  free  trade,  we  must 
conclude,  that  on  the  face  of  it  the  struggle  is  that  of  the  many 
against  the  few.  It  is  a  struggle  between  the  numbers,  wealth, 
comforts  of  the  middle  and  industrious  classes,  and  the  wealth,  the 
union,  and  sordidness  of  a  large  section  of  the  aristocracy  of  this 
empire ;  and  we  have  to  decide  in  this  great  struggle  whether,  in 
this  land  in  which  we  live,  we  will  longer  bear  the  wicked  legis- 
lation to  which  we  have  been  subjected,  or  whether  we  will  make 
one  effort  to  right  the  vessel,  to  keep  her  in  her  true  course,  and 
if  possible  to  bring  her  safely  to  a  secure  haven.  Our  object  can 
only  be  that  we  should  have  good  and  impartial  government  for 
everybody.  As  the  whole  people,  we  can  by  no  possibility  have  the 
smallest  interest  in  any  partial  or  unjust  legislation  ;  we  do  not 
wish  to  sacrifice  any  right  of  the  richest  or  most  powerful  class, 
but  we  are  resolved  that  that  class  shall  not  sacrifice  the  rights  of 
a  whole  people. 


JOHN  BRIGHT  135 

We  have  had  landlord  rule  longer,  far  longer  than  the  life 
of  the  oldest  man  in  this  vast  assembly,  and  I  would  ask  you  to 
look  at  the  results  of  that  rule,  and  then  decide  whether  it  be  not 
necessary  to  interpose  some  check  to  the  extravagance  of  such 
legislation.  Abroad,  the  history  of  our  country  is  the  history  of 
war  and  rapine;  at  home,  of  debt,  taxes,  and  rapine  too.  In  all 
the  greatest  contests  in  which  we  have  been  engaged  we  have 
found  that  the  ruling  class  have  taken  all  the  honors,  while  the 
•people  have  taken  all  the  scars.  No  sooner  was  the  country  freed 
from  the  horrible  contest  which  was  so  long  carried  on  with  the 
powers  of  Europe,  than  this  law,  by  their  partial  legislation,  was 
enacted — far  more  hostile  to  British  interests  than  any  combination 
of  foreign  powers  has  ever  proved ;  they  pray  daily  that  in  their 
legislation  they  may  discard  all  private  ends  and  partial  affections, 
and  after  prayers  they  sit  down  to  make  a  law  for  the  purpose  of 
extorting  from  all  the  consumers  of  food  a  higher  price  than  it  is 
worth,  that  the  extra  price  may  find  its  way  into  the  pockets  of  the 
proprietors  of  land,  these  proprietors  being  the  very  men  by  whom 
this  infamous  law  is  sustained. 

n.  PROTECTION  A  SOURCE  OF  PAUPERISM 

Mr.  Bright  accuses  the  hereditary  classes  of  great  inequaUty  of  legisla- 
tion. They  "  deal  leniently  with  high  gaming,"  and  enact  laws  for  the 
preservation  of  wild  animals  for  their  own  sport  in  shooting.  They  pull 
down  small  houses  on  their  estates  that  the  number  of  population  may  be 
thinned.  These  poor  people  are  driven  to  the  cities  for  subsistence  or  to 
America  for  refuge.  It  is  class  legislation  and  favoritism  not  to  be  toler- 
ated by  a  free  people. 

You  have  seen  in  the  papers,  within  the  last  fortnight,  that  the 
foul  and  frightful  crime  of  incendiarism  has  again  appeared.  It 
always  shows  itself  when  we  have  had  for  some  short  time  a  high 
price  of  bread.  The  Com  Law  is  as  great  a  robbery  of  the  man 
who  follows  the  plow  as  it  is  of  him  who  minds  the  loom,  with 
this  difference,  that  the  man  who  follows  the  plow  is,  of  the  two, 
nearest  the  earth,  and  it  takes  less  power  to  press  him  into  it. 


136  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

Now  what  is  the  condition  of  this  agricultural  laborer,  for  whom 
they  tell  us  protection  is  necessary  ?  He  lives  in  a  parish  whose 
owner,  it  may  be,  has  deeply  mortgaged  it.  The  estate  is  let  to 
farmers  without  capital  whose  land  grows  almost  as  much  rushes 
as  wheat.  The  bad  cultivation  of  the  land  provides  scarcely  any 
employment  for  the  laborers,  who  become  more  and  more  numer- 
ous in  the  parish ;  the  competition  which  there  is  amongst  these 
laborers  for  the  litde  employment  to  be  had,  bringing  down  the 
wages  to  the  very  lowest  point  at  which  their  lives  can  be  kept  in 
them.  They  are  heart-broken,  spirit-broken,  despairing  men.  They 
have  been  accustomed  to  this  from  their  youth,  and  they  see  noth- 
ing in  the  future  which  affords  a  single  ray  of  hope. 

If  there  be  one  view  of  this  question  which  stimulates  me  to 
harder  work  in  this  case  than  another,  it  is  the  fearful  sufferings 
which  I  know  to  exist  amongst  the  rural  laborers  in  almost  every 
part  of  this  kingdom.  How  can  they  be  men  under  the  circum- 
stances in  which  they  live  ?  During  the  period  of  their  growing  up 
to  manhood,  they  are  employed  at  odd  jobs  about  the  farm  or  the 
farmyard,  for  wages  which  are  merely  those  of  little  children  in 
Lancashire.  Every  man  who  marries  is  considered  an  enemy  to  the 
parish ;  every  child  who  is  born  into  the  world,  instead  of  being  a 
subject  of  rejoicing  to  its  parents  and  the  community,  is  considered 
as  an  intruder  come  to  compete  for  the  little  work  and  the  small 
quantity  of  food  which  is  left  to  the  population.  And  then  comes 
toil,  year  after  year,  long  years  of  labor,  with  little  remuneration. 

But  the  crowning  offense  of  the  system  of  legislation  under 
which  we  have  been  living  is,  that  a  law  has  been  enacted  in 
which  it  is  altogether  unavoidable  that  these  industrious  and  de- 
serving men  should  be  brought  down  to  so  helpless  and  despairing 
a  condition.  By  withdrawing  the  stimulus  of  competition,  the  law 
prevents  the  good  cultivation  of  the  land  of  our  country,  and  there- 
fore diminishes  the  supply  of  food  which  we  might  derive  from  it. 
It  prevents,  at  the  same  time,  the  importation  of  foreign  food  from 
abroad,  and  it  also  prevents  the  growth  of  supplies  abroad,  so  that 
when  we  are  forced  to  go  there  for  them  they  are  not  to  be  found. 


JOHN  BRIGHT  1 37 

The  law  is,  in  fact,  a  law  of  the  most  ingeniously  malignant  charac- 
ter. It  is  fenced  about  in  every  possible  way.  The  most  demoniacal 
ingenuity  could  not  have  invented  a  scheme  more  calculated  to 
bring  millions  of  the  working  classes  of  this  country  to  a  state 
of  pauperism,  suffering,  discontent,  and  insubordination  than  the 
Corn  Law  which  we  are  now  opposing. 

This  law  is  the  parent  of  many  of  those  grievous  fluctuations  in 
trade  under  which  so  much  suffering  is  created  in  this  commercial 
kingdom.  There  is  a  period  coming  —  it  may  be  as  bad  or  worse 
than  the  last  —  when  many  a  man,  now  feeling  himself  independent 
and  comfortable  in  his  circumstances,  will  find  himself  swept  away 
by  a  torrent  and  his  goodly  ship  made  a  complete  wreck.  Capital 
avails  almost  nothing;  fluctuations  in  trade  we  have,  such  as  no 
prudence  can  guard  against.  We  are  in  despair  one  year,  and  in 
a  state  of  great  excitement  in  the  next.  At  one  time  ruin  stares 
us  in  the  face,  at  another  we  fancy  that  we  are  getting  rich  in  a 
moment.  Not  only  is  trade  sacrificed,  but  the  moral  character  of 
the  country  is  injured  by  the  violent  fluctuations  created  by  this 
law.  And  now  have  we  a  scarcity  coming  or  not?  They  say  that 
to  be  forewarned  is  to  be  forearmed,  and  that  a  famine  foretold 
never  comes.  And  so  this  famine  could  not  have  come  if  the 
moment  we  saw  it  to  be  coming  we  had  had  power  to  relieve  our- 
selves by  supplies  of  food  from  abroad.  The  reason  why  a  famine 
foretold  never  comes,  is  because  when  it  is  foreseen  and  foretold, 
men  prepare  for  it,  and  thus  it  never  comes.  But  here,  though  it 
has  been  both  foreseen  and  foretold,  there  is  a  law  passed  by  a 
paternal  legislature,  remaining  on  the  statute  book,  which  says  to 
twenty-seven  millions  of  people,  "  Scramble  for  what  there  is,  and 
if  the  poorest  and  the  weakest  starve,  foreign  supplies  shall  not 
come  in  for  fear  some  injury  should  be  done  to  the  mortgaged 
landowners." 

Two  centuries  ago  the  people  of  this  country  were  engaged 
in  a  fearful  conflict  with  the  Crown.  A  despotic  and  treacherous 
monarch  assumed  to  himself  the  right  to  levy  taxes  without  the 
consent  of  Parliament  and  the  people.      That  assumption  was 


138  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

resisted.  This  fair  island  became  a  battlefield,  the  kingdom  was  con- 
vulsed, and  an  ancient  throne  overturned.  And  if  our  forefathers 
two  hundred  years  ago  resisted  that  attempt,  if  they  refused  to 
be  bondmen  of  a  king,  shall  we  be  the  bom  thralls  of  an  aristoc- 
racy like  ours  ?  Shall  we  who  struck  the  lion  down,  shall  we  pay 
the  wolf  homage  ?  or  shall  we  not,  by  a  manly  and  united  expression 
of  public  opinion,  at  once  and  forever  put  an  end  to  this  giant 
wrong  ? 

Our  case  is  at  least  as  good  as  theirs.  We  stand  on  higher 
vantage  ground ;  we  have  large  numbers  at  our  back ;  we  have 
more  of  wealth,  intelligence,  union,  and  knowledge  of  the  political 
rights  and  the  true  interests  of  the  country ;  and,  what  is  more  than 
all  this,  we  have  a  weapon,  a  power,  and  machinery,  which  is  a 
thousand  times  better  than  that  of  force,  were  it  employed ' —  I  re- 
fer to  the  registration,  for  that  is  the  great  constitutional  weapon 
which  we  intend  to  wield,  and  by  means  of  which  we  are  sure  to 
conquer,  our  laurels  being  gained,  not  in  bloody  fields,  but  upon 
the  hustings  and  in  the  registration  courts.  Now  I  hope  that  if 
this  law  be  repealed  within  the  next  six  months,  and  if  it  should 
then  be  necessary  that  this  League  should  disperse,  I  trust  that  the 
people  of  England  will  tear  in  mind  how  great  a  panic  has  been 
created  among  the  monopolist  rulers  by  this  small  weapon,  which 
we  have  discovered  hid  in  the  Reform  Act  and  in  the  Constitution 
of  the  country.  I  would  implore  the  middle  and  working  classes  to 
regard  it  as  the  portal  of  their  deliverance,  as  the  strong  and  irre- 
sistible weapon  before  which  the  domination  of  this  hereditary 
peerage  must  at  length  be  laid  in  the  dust. 


JOHN  BRIGHT  139 

DEFENSE  OF  CANADA 

This  speech  was  delivered  in  the  House  of  Commons,  March  13,  1865. 
Mr.  Bright,  the  stanch  friend*  of  America  and  the  eloquent  advocate  of 
peace,  can  see  no  reason  why  the  government  of  the  United  States  should 
desire  to  molest  Canada  unless  forced  to  do  so  by  the  hostile  attitude  of 
England.  He  believes  that  these  two  peoples  of  common  language  and 
origin  should  "  march  abreast "  and  ever  be  the  "  guardians  of  freedom 
and  justice." 

I  hope  the  debate  on  the  defense  of  Canada  will  be  useful, 
though  I  am  obliged  to  say  that  I  think  it  is  one  of  some  delicacy. 
Its  importance  is  great,  because  it  refers  to  the  possibility  of  a 
war  with  the  United  States,  and  its  delicacy  arises  from  this,  that 
it  is  difficult  to  discuss  the  question  without  saying  things  which 
tend  rather  in  the  direction  of  war  than  of  peace.  The  difficulty 
now  before  us  is  that  there  is  an  extensive  colony  or  dependency 
of  this  country  adjacent  to  the  United  States,  and  if  there  be  a 
war  party  in  the  United  States,  that  circumstance  affords  it  a  very 
strong  temptation  to  enter  without  much  hesitation  into  a  war 
with  England,  because  it  feels  that  through  Canada  it  can  inflict  a 
great  humiliation  on  this  country.  It  is  perfectly  well  known  to 
all  intelligent  men,  and  especially  to  all  statesmen  and  public  men 
of  the  United  States,  that  there  is  no  power  whatever  in  this 
United  Kingdom  to  defend  successfully  the  territory  of  Canada 
against  the  United  States.  We  ought  to  know  that  in  order  to 
put  ourselves  right  upon  the  question,  and  that  we  may  not  be 
called  upon  to  talk  folly  and  to  act  folly. 

I  beg  leave  to  tell  the  House  that  there  are  millions  of  men 
who,  by  their  industry,  not  only  have  created  but  sustained  the 
fabric  of  our  national  power,  who  have  had  no  kind  of  sympathy 
with  the  men  whom  I  am  condemning.  They  are  more  generous 
and  wise.  They  have  shown  that  magnanimity  and  love  of  free- 
dom are  not  extinct  among  us.  If  the  bond  of  union  and  friend- 
ship between  England  and  the  United  States  remain  unbroken, 
we  have  not  to  thank  the  wealthy  and  the  cultivated,  but  the 
laborious  millions,  whom  statesmen  and  historians  too  frequently 


I40  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

make  little  account  of.  They  know  something  of  the  United  States 
that  the  honorable  gentlemen  opposite  and  some  on  this  side  of 
the  House  do  not  know  —  that  every  man  of  them  would  be  wel- 
come on  the  American  continent  if  they  chose  to  go  there,  that 
every  right  and  privilege  which  the  greatest  and  highest  in  that 
country  enjoy  would  be  theirs,  and  that  every  man  would  have 
given  to  him  by  the  United  States  a  free  gift  of  one  hundred  and 
sixty  acres  of  the  most  fertile  land  in  the  world.  Honorable  gen- 
tlemen may  laugh,  but  that  is  a  good  deal  to  a  man  who  has  no 
land,  and  I  can  assure  them  that  this  Homestead  Act  has  a  great 
effect  on  the  population  of  the  north  of  England.  I  can  tell  them, 
too,  that  the  laboring  population  of  these  counties,  the  artisans 
and  the  mechanics,  will  give  you  no  encouragement  to  any  policy 
that  is  intended  to  estrange  the  people  of  the  United  States  from 
the  people  of  the  United  Kingdom. 

But,  sir,  we  have  other  securities  for  peace  not  less  than  these, 
and  I  find  them  in  the  character  of  the  government  and  people  of 
the  American  Union.  The  right  honorable  gentleman  referred  to 
what  might  reasonably  be  supposed  to  happen  in  case  the  rebellion 
was  suppressed.  He  did  not  think  when  a  nation  was  exhausted 
that  it  would  rush  rashly  into  a  new  struggle.  The  loss  of  life  has 
been  great,  the  loss  of  treasure  enormous.  Happily  for  them,  it  was 
not  to  keep  a  Bourbon  on  the  throne  of  France,  or  to  keep  the 
Turks  in  Europe.  It  was  for  an  object  which  every  man  can  com- 
prehend who  examines  it  by  the  light  of  his  own  intelligence  and 
his  own  conscience ;  and  if  men  have  given  their  lives  and  possessions 
for  the  attainment  of  the  great  end  of  maintaining  the  integrity  and 
unity  of  a  great  country,  the  history  of  the  future  must  be  written 
in  a  different  spirit  from  the  history  of  the  past,  if  she  expresses 
any  condemnation  of  that  temper.  But  Mr.  Lincoln  is  President 
of  the  United  States  now  for  the  second  term ;  he  was  elected 
exclusively  at  first  by  what  was  termed  the  Republican  party,  and 
he  has  been  elected  now  by  what  may  be  called  the  great  Union 
party  of  the  nation.  But  Mr.  Lincoln's  party  has  always  been  for 
peace.    That  party  in  the  North  has  never  carried  "on  any  war  of 


JOHN   BRIGHT  141 

aggression,  and  has  never  desired  one.  Now,  speaking  only  of 
the  North,  of  the  free  states,  let  the  House  remember  that  landed 
property,  and  indeed  property  of  all  kinds,  is  more  universally 
diffused  there  than  in  any  other  nation,  and  that  instruction  and 
school  education  are  also  more  widely  diffused.  Well,  I  say  they 
have  never  hitherto  carried  on  a  war  for  aggression  or  for  venge- 
ance, and  I  believe  they  will  not  begin  one  now.  Canada  is,  indeed, 
a  tempting  bait.  The  noble  lord  agrees  that  it  is  a  very  tempting 
bait,  not  for  purposes  of  annexation,  but  of  humiliating  this  coun- 
try. It  is  admitted  that  once  at  war  with  the  United  States  for 
any  cause,  Canada  cannot  be  defended  by  any  power  on  land  or 
at  sea  which  this  country  could  raise  or  spare  for  that  purpose. 

My  honorable  friend  referred  to  a  point  which,  I  suppose,  has 
really  been  the  cause  of  this  debate,  and  that  was  the  temper 
of  the  United  States  in  making  some  demands  upon  our  gov- 
ernment. Well,  1  asked  a  question  the  other  evening,  whether 
we  had  not  claims  upon  them.  If  any  man  has  a  right  to  go 
to  law  with  another,  he  is  obliged  to  go  into  court  and  the  case 
must  be  heard  before  the  proper  tribunal.  And  why  should  it  not 
be  so  between  two  great  nations  and  two  free  governments  ?  If 
one  has  claims  against  the  other,  nothing  can  be  more  fair  than 
that  those  claims  should  be  courteously  and  honestly  considered. 
It  is  quite  absurd  to  suppose  that  the  English  government  and 
the  government  at  Washington  could  have  a  question  about  half  a 
million  of  money  which  they  could  not  setde.  I  think  the  noble 
lord  considers  it  a  question  of  honor.  But  all  questions  of  prop- 
erty are  questions  of  law,  and  you  go  to  a  lawyer  to  settle  them. 
I  rest  in  the  most  perfect  security  that  as  the  war  in  America 
draws  to  a  close,  if  happily  we  shall  become  more  generous  to 
them,  they  will  become  less  irritated  against  us ;  and  when  pas- 
sions have  cooled  down,  I  don't  see  why  Lord  Russell  and 
Mr.  Seward  should  not  be  able  to  setde  these  matters  between 
the  two  nations. 

I  have  only  one  more  observation  to  make.  I  apprehend  that 
the  root  of  all  the   unfortunate  circumstances   that  have   arisen 


142  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

is  a  feeling  of  jealousy  which  we  have  cherished  with  regard  to  the 
American  Union.  It  was  very  much  shown  at  the  beginning  of 
this  war,  when  an  honofable  member  whom  I  will  not  name,  for 
he  would  not  like  it  now,  spoke  of  "  the  bursting  of  the  bubble 
republic."  Well,  I  recollect  that  Lord  John  Russell  turned  round 
and  rebuked  him  in  language  worthy  of  his  name,  character,  and 
position.  I  beg  to  tell  that  gentleman  and  any  one  else  who  talks 
about  bubble  republics  that  I  have  a  great  suspicion  that  a  great 
many  bubbles  will  burst  before  that  bubble  bursts.  Why  should 
we  fear  a  great  nation  on  the  American  continent?  Some  fear 
that  a  great  nation  would  be  arrogant  and  aggressive.  But  that 
does  not  at  all  follow.  It  does  not  depend  altogether  upon  the 
size  of  a  nation,  but  upon  its  qualities,  and  upon  the  intelligence, 
instruction,  and  morals  of  its  people.  You  fancy  that  the  supremacy 
of  the  sea  will  pass  away  from  you.  Well,  if  the  supremacy  of  the 
sea  excites  the  arrogance  of  this  country,  the  sooner  it  becomes 
obsolete  the  better.  I  don't  believe  it  to  be  for  the  advantage 
of  this  country  or  of  any  other  that  any  one  nation  should  pride 
itself  upon  what  it  terms  the  supremacy  of  the  sea,  and  I  hope  the 
time  is  come  when  we  shall  find  that  law  and  justice  shall  guide 
the  councils  and  direct  the  policy  of  the  Christian  nations  of 
the  world. 


WILLIAM   E.  GLADSTONE 


William  Ewart  Gladstone  (i 809-1 898)  was  a  man  of 
broad  and  liberal  training.  He  attended  a  private  school  until 
he  was  twelve  years  old,  when  he  was  sent  to  Eton.  After 
finishing  his  course  there 
he  spent  two  years  with  a 
private  tutor  and  entered 
Oxford,  where  he  re- 
mained four  years.  He 
not  only  completed  his 
studies  with  credit,  but 
secured  the  highest  hon- 
ors in  two  departments  of 
study,  classics  and  mathe- 
matics, a  thing  almost  un- 
precedented in  the  history 
of  Oxford. 

An  indefatigable  stu- 
dent, he  not  only  pursued 
his  regular  college  work 
but  devoted  his  leisure 
hours  to  literature,  history,  and  finance.  Even  while  at  Eton 
he  began  to  contribute  to  magazines.  He  early  made  it  a  duty 
to  cultivate  his  varied  intellectual  powers,  especially  his  power 
of  expression  with  the  pen.  He  became  a  sound  classical 
scholar,  an  accurate  thinker,  a  thorough  student  of  ecclesi- 
astic history  and  of  the  faith  and  doctrines  of  Christianity,  so 
that  later  in  his  career  he  contributed  many  learned  articles 
on  religious  faith  and  tenets. 

143 


144  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

During  his  early  years  in  Parliament  he  took  up  the  study 
of  law  and  kept  his  course  for  several  terms  at  Lincoln's  Inn. 
But  he  was  never  admitted  to  the  bar,  as  he  was  too  much 
engrossed  with  affairs  of  state  to  give  time  to  the  practice  of 
law.  The  training  which  bore  particularly  on  his  oratory  was 
his  work  in  the  Oxford  Union,  a  debating  society  composed 
of  students  interested  in  discussing  public  questions.  These 
opportunities  were  attractive  to  him,  and  his  remarkable 
talents  as  a  debater  soon  made  him  a  conspicuous  member  of 
that  organization.  It  was  his  persistency  in  informing  him- 
self on  public  questions  and  upholding  his  views  in  the  Union 
with  spirit  and  logical  skill  that  developed  him  so  rationally 
and  so  rapidly  for  his  duties  in  Parliament ;  so  that  when  he 
entered  the  House  he  soon  made  a  name  for  himself  for  his 
thoughtfulness,  his  energy,  and  his  skill  in  presenting  his 
arguments. 

He  was  also  much  profited  by  his  early  association  with 
George  Canning,  the  great  parliamentarian  and  orator,  who 
was  a  close  friend  of  his  father,  and  other  men  of  literary 
fame  whose  skill  in  oratory  and  debate  and  whose  many  hints 
on  the  subject  affected  most  favorably  the  mobile  nature  of 
young  Gladstone.  He  himself  explains  what  he  believes  to  be 
the  best  preparatory  training  for  one  who  would  succeed  in 
oratory,  and  which  he  carried  out  to  the  letter,  in  the  following 
terse  language  :  "  The  first  requisite  is  a  wide  and  thorough 
general  education.  Second,  the  habit  of  constant  and  search- 
ing reflection  on  the  subject  of  any  proposed  discourse.  Such 
reflection  will  naturally  clothe  itself,  and  of  the  phrases  it 
supplies  many  will  spontaneously  rise  to  the  lips.  It  is  on 
these  that  I  should  advise  the  young  principally  to  rely." 

In  personal  appearance  Gladstone  was  very  attractive.  He 
was  over  six  feet  in  height,  with  a  commanding,  erect  figm-e, 
a  large,  well-poised  head,  and  ample  chest.    His  eyes  were 


WILLIAM  E.  GLADSTONE  145 

gray  and  his  brows  dark  and  prominent,  and  his  inteUigent, 
expressive  countenance,  though  sometimes  severe,  generally 
wore  a  pleasing  expression.  No  one  who  ever  saw  him  can 
forget  his  erect  form  with  its  quick,  strong  step.  He  was 
temperate  in  habits  and  kept  himself  in  physical  condition  by 
regular,  active  exercise  in  the  open  air.  A  brisk  walk  of  ten 
or  twenty  miles  was  a  small  matter  to  him,  and  the  decaying 
trees  on  his  estate  at  Hawarden  yielded  to  the  swing  of  his 
ax  as  he  felled  them  and  turned  them  into  firewood. 

His  power  as  an  orator  was  a  great  delight  to  his  waiting 
audiences.  His  command  of  language  was  remarkable.  Copi- 
ousness and  readiness  of  speech,  versatility  and  grace  of 
diction,  were  never  wanting.  Dr.  James  M.  Buckley  calls  him 
*'  the  most  wonderful  extemporizer  of  the  modern  English- 
speaking  world."  He  would  hold  an  audience  for  hours  while 
he  extemporized  on  finance  or  diplomatic  relations.  Few  may 
be  said  to  be  his  peers  in  power  of  statement  and  exposition. 
Though  sometimes  wordy  in  expression,  with  a  tendency  to 
use  long  words  where  short  Anglo-Saxon  ones  would  better 
hit  the  mark,  yet  he  weighted  his  every  utterance  with  thought 
and  feeling.  Some  of  his  sentences  are  nearly  a  page  in 
length.  With  their  parentheses  and  saving  clauses  it  is  hard 
sometimes  to  keep  in  mind  the  subject  of  the  sentence.  His 
fondness  for  Latin  and  Greek  derivatives,  his  long  words  and 
almost  interminable  sentences,  seem  to  us  to-day  to  be  his 
chief  faults  of  style.  On  this  account  hfs  speeches,  to  read 
them,  do  not  compare  in  effectiveness  and  incisiveness  with 
those  of  John  Bright,  his  great  contemporary  and  friend. 

But  Gladstone's  great  charm  was  in  his  immediate  personal 
influence  upon  his  audience.  Not  only  was  he  fluent  and 
versatile,  but  he  was  very  earnest  in  the  delivery  of  his  thought, 
with  that  warmth  of  disposition,  that  blood-earnestness,  that 
sensitive  sympathy  between  the  speaker  and  his  audience  so 


146  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

necessary  to  the  best  eloquence.  When  he  first  began  speak- 
ing he  stood  for  a  while  with  his  hands  behind  him,  but  as  he 
warmed  to  his  theme  he  released  them  and  used  them,  in 
varied  and  energetic  action,  to  enforce  his  thought.  His  whole 
body  spoke,  and  he  was  magnetic  even  in  repose. 

His  voice  was  a  baritone,  now  low  and  soft,  now  full  and 
clear,  now  strong  and  powerful.  Its  varied  melody  and  direct- 
ness of  inflection  were  a  constant  pleasure  to  the  ear.  When 
he  was  thoroughly  aroused  his  slow  and  carefully  accentuated 
tones  marked  the  heat  of  his  passion  and  his  self-restraint ; 
''  a  man  all  but  mastered  by  his  excitement,  but  who  at  the 
very  point  of  being  mastered  masters  himself,  apparently  cool 
while  he  is  at  a  white  heat,  so  as  to  make  the  audience  glow 
with  fire."  Yet  under  intense  excitement  his  voice  remained 
firm  and  strong  and  apparently  insensible  to  fatigue  during 
his  speeches,  even  in  his  old  age. 

The  intense  interest  shown  by  his  audiences  is  evidence  of 
the  great  weight  of  his  personality  and  his  persuasiveness. 
On  the  occasion  of  his  first  budget  speech  after  his  election  to 
the  premiership,  it  is  said  that  ''expectation  stood  on  tiptoe, 
the  House  was  crowded  in  every  part,  and  it  remained  crowded 
and  tireless,  while  for  the  space  of  five  hours  Mr.  Gladstone 
poured  forth  a  flood  of  oratory  which  made  arithmetic  aston- 
ishingly easy  and  gave  an  unaccustomed  grace  to  statistics. 
Merely  as  an  oratorical  display  the  speech  was  a  rare  treat  to 
the  crowded  assembly  that  heard  it,  and  to  the  innumerable 
company  which  some  hours  later  read  it.  But  the  form  was 
rendered  doubly  enchanting  by  the  substance.  It  was  clear 
that  Mr.  Gladstone  could  not  only  adorn  the  exposition  of 
finance  with  the  -gifts  of  oratory,  but  he  could  control  the 
developments  of  finance  with  a  master  hand." 

What  is  said  of  this  speech  may  be  said  of  other  great 
speeches.    Whenever  it  was  expected  he  would  speak  on  an 


WILLIAM   E.  GLADSTONE  I47 

important  question,  the  Commons  was  crowded  to  its  fullest 
capacity  and  great  numbers  would  be  immediately  outside, 
anxious  to  be  informed  of  the  course  of  events.  His  speeches, 
like  Webster's,  are  permanent  literature  —  the  best  part  of 
his  authorship.  He  appealed  to  the  higher  and  better  part  of 
men's  nature.  Because  of  his  disposition  to  be  candid  and  fair 
he  was  highly  respected  by  all  parties.  He  inspired  men,  and 
because  of  his  open-mindedness  and  freedom  from  ignoble 
motives  he  was  listened  to  with  the  profoundest  respect  and 
attention.  On  this  account  he  could  sway  a  hostile  audience 
as  could  few  men  of  the  last  century.  Redmond  called  him 
the  "  greatest  of  English  orators  and  the  last."  He  must  be 
set  down  as  one  of  the  ablest  debaters  and  most  commanding 
personalities  that  ever  spoke  in  Parliament.  On  every  measure 
of  importance  his  voice  was  awaited  by  the  people.  ''What 
will  Gladstone  say  .''  "  was  the  word. 

One  of  his  most  powerful  and  impressive  addresses  was  on 
the  Reform  Bill  of  1866,  which  he  closes  with  the  following 
significant  prophecy  in  regard  to  the  extension  of  the  suffrage : 
''  You  cannot  fight  against  the  future.  Time  is  on  our  side. 
The  great  social  forces  which  move  onwards  in  their  might 
and  majesty,  and  which  the  tumult  of  our  debates  does  not 
for  a  moment  impede  or  disturb  —  those  great  social  forces 
are  against  you.  They  are  marshaled  on  our  side,  and  the 
banner  which  we  now  carry  in  this  fight,  though  perhaps  at 
some  moment  it  may  drop  over  our  sinking  heads,  yet  it  soon 
again  will  float  in  the  eye  of  heaven  and  will  be  borne  by  the 
firm  hands  of  the  united  people  of  the  three  kingdoms,  per- 
haps not  to  an  easy  but  to  a  certain  and  not  far-distant  victory." 

If  one  were  asked,  on  hearing  of  the  death  of  Gladstone, 
who  in  all  this  world  exercised  the  greatest  influence  during 
the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  answer  would 
be  with  hardly  a  dissenting  voice,  William  E.  Gladstone. 


148  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

John  Bright,  the  only  Enghshman  of  the  same  period  who 
may  be  ranked  with  him  in  eloquence  and  influence,  exclaims 
of  Gladstone,  ''  Who  is  there  in  the  House  of  Commons 
who  equals  him  in  knowledge  of  all  political  questions  ?  Who 
equals  him  in  earnestness  ?  Who  equals  him  in  eloquence  ? 
Who  equals  him  in  courage  and  fidelity  to  his  convictions?" 
Another  speaks  of  him  as  a  "unique  figure  in  the  world's 
history  and  progress ;  a  man  of  unsullied  reputation,  of  lofty 
impulses,  a  master  of  eloquence,  an  earnest  defender  of  Chris- 
tianity, one  of  the  great  leaders  of  the  nineteenth  century." 

None  who  knew  him  ever  judged  him  to  be  an  ordinary 
man.  He  was  the  trusted  representative  of  the  English  people 
for  four  decades,  a  man  of  lofty  ideals,  integrity  of  purpose 
and  moral  force,  and  withal  a  deeply  religious  man  ;  a  prime 
minister  under  whose  influence  more  laws  took  shape  than 
under  the  administration  of  any  other  minister.  With  cease- 
less activity  and  undaunted  courage  he  entered  the  public 
service  and  devoted  himself  entirely  and  unselfishly  to  the 
welfare  of  the  people  of  the  British  Empire. 

But  his  efforts  toward  the  uplifting  of  humanity  were  not 
confined  to  the  British  people.  His  hatred  of  cruelty  and 
oppression  made  him  enter  the  lists  against  the  foes  of  the 
common  people  of  Italy,  and  even  after  he  had  retired  from 
active  public  service,  his  appeal  in  behalf  of  the  people  of 
Armenia  and  his  philippic  against  the  "Unspeakable  Turk" 
stirred  the  hearts  of  England  and  the  world,  and,  perhaps 
more  than  any  other  one  influence,  caused  the  Sultan  to  relax 
his  cruelties  in  Armenia. 

Gladstone's  chief  speeches  as  they  are  preserved  to  us  are 
as  follows :  "The  Error  of  English  Colonial  Aggrandizement " 
(1865),  "Disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Church"  (1869), 
"  Domestic  and  Foreign  Affairs  "  {1879),  "  Home  Rule  and 
Autonomy"  (1886),  "  The  Armenian  Massacres"  (1896). 


WILLIAM   E.  GLADSTONE  149 


DOMESTIC  AND  FOREIGN  AFFAIRS 

This  speech  was  delivered  at  West  Calder,  November  27,  1879.  It  was 
the  third  made  by  Mr.  Gladstone  during  his  famous  Midlothian  canvass, 
extending  from  November  24  to  December  9.  He  attacked  the  policy  of 
Lord  Beaconsfield  with  so  much  vigor  that  it  was  a  prime  factor  in  return- 
ing the  Liberal  party  to  power  the  next  year. 

I.    AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS 

Yesterday  I  ventured  to  state  a  number  of  matters  connected 
with  the  state  of  legislation,  in  which  it  appears  to  me  to  be  of  vital 
importance,  both  to  the  agricultural  interest  and  to  the  entire  com- 
munity, that  the  occupiers  and  cultivators  of  the  land  of  this  coun- 
try should  be  relieved  from  restraints  under  the  operation  of  which 
they  now  suffer  considerably.  Beyond  those  two  great  heads,  gen- 
tlemen, what  you  have  to  look  to,  I  believe,  is  your  own  energy, 
your  own  energy  of  thought  and  action,  and  your  care  not  to  under- 
take to  pay  rents  greater  than,  in  reasonable  calculation,  you  think 
you  can  afford. 

There  are  some  gentlemen,  and  there  are  persons  for  whom  I 
for  one  have  very  great  respect,  who  think  that  the  difficulties  of 
our  agriculture  may  be  got  over  by  a  fundamental  change  in  the 
landholding  system  of  this  country.  I  do  not  mean,  now  pray  ob- 
serve, a  change  as  to  the  law  of  entail  and  setdement,  but  I  mean 
those  who  think  that  if  you  can  cut  up  the  land,  or  a  large  part 
of  it,  into  a  multitude  of  small  properties,  that  of  itself  will  solve 
the  difficulty  and  start  everybody  on  a  career  of  prosperity. 

Now,  gentlemen,  to  a  proposal  of  that  kind,  I,  for  one,  am  not 
going  to  object  upon  the  ground  that  it  would  be  inconsistent  with 
the  privileges  of  landed  proprietors.  In  my  opinion,  if  it  is  known 
to  be  for  the  welfare  of  the  community  at  large,  the  legislature  is 
perfectly  en  tided  to  buy  out  the  landed  proprietors.  It  is  not  in- 
tended probably  to  confiscate  the  property  of  a  landed  proprietor 
more  than  the  property  of  any  other  man ;  but  the  state  is  per- 
fecdy  entitled,  if  it  please,  to  buy  out  the  landed  proprietors  as  it 
may  think  fit,  for  the  purpose  of  dividing  the  property  into  small 


I50  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

lots.  I  do  not  wish  to  recommend  it,  because  I  will  show  you  the 
doubts  that,  to  my  mind,  hang  about  that  proposal;  but  I  admit 
that  on  principle  no  objection  can  be  taken.  Those  persons  who 
possess  large  portions  of  the  spaces  of  the  earth  are  not  altogether 
in  the  same  position  as  the  possessors  of  mere  personality ;  that 
personality  does  not  impose  the  same  limitations  upon  the  action 
and  industry  of  man,  and  upon  the  well-being  of  the  community, 
as  does  the  possession  of  land,  and,  therefore,  I  freely  own  that 
compulsory  expropriation  is  a  thing  which  for  an  adequate  public 
object  is  in  itself  admissible  and  so  far  sound  in  principle. 

Now,  gentlemen,  this  idea  about  small  proprietors,  however,  is 
one  which  very  large  bodies  and  parties  in  this  country  treat  with 
the  utmost  contempt.  But  it  is  fair  that  justice  should  be  done  to 
what  is  called  the  peasant  proprietary.  Peasant  proprietary  is  an 
excellent  thing,  if  it  can  be  had,  in  many  points  of  view.  It  inter- 
ests an  enormous  number  of  the  people  in  the  soil  of  the  country, 
and  in  the  stability  of  its  institutions  and  its  laws*  But  now  look 
at  the  effect  that  it  has  upon  the  progressive  value  of  the  land. 
What  will  you  think  when  I  tell  you  that  the  agricultural  value  of 
France  —  the  taxable  income  derived  from  the  land,  and  therefore 
the  income  of  the  proprietors  of  that  land  —  has  advanced  during 
our  lifetime  far  more  rapidly  than  that  of  England .''  While  the 
agricultural  income  of  France  increased  forty  per  cent  in  thirteen 
years,  the  agricultural  income  of  England  increased  twenty  per  cent 
in  thirty-four  years.  The  increase  in  France  was  three  per  cent 
per  annum ;  the  increase  in  England  was  about  one  half  or  three 
fifths  per  cent  per  annum.  Now,  gentlemen,  I  wish  this  justice  to 
be  done  to  a  system  where  peasant  proprietary  prevails.  It  is  of 
great  importance.  And  will  you  allow  me,  you  who  are  Scotch 
agriculturists,  to  assure  you  that  I  speak  to  you  not  only  with  the 
respect  which  is  due  from  a  candidate  to  a  constituency,  but  with 
the  deference  which  is  due  from  a  man  knowing  very  little  of  agri- 
cultural matters  to  those  who  know  a  great  deal  ?  And  there  is 
one  point  at  which  the  considerations  that  I  have  been  opening  up, 
and  this  rapid  increase  of  the  value  of  the  soil  in  France,  bear  upon 


WILLIAM   E.  GLADSTONE  151 

our  discussions.  Let  me  try  to  explain  it.  I  believe  myself  that 
the  operation  of  economic  laws  is  what  in  the  main  dictates  the 
distribution  of  landed  property  in  this  country.  I  doubt  if  those 
economic  laws  will  allow  it  to  remain  cut  up  into  a  multitude  of 
small  properties  like  the  small  properties  of  France.  As  to  small 
holdings,  I  am  one  of  those  who  attach  the  utmost  value  to  them. 

What  do  the  peasant  properties  mean  ?  They  mean  what,  in 
France,  is  called  the  small  cultivation,  cultivation  of  superior  arti- 
cles, pursued  upon  a  small  scale,  cultivation  of  flowers,  cultiva- 
tion of  trees  and  shrubs,  cultivation  of  fruits  of  every  kind,  and 
all  that  which  rises  above  the  ordinary  character  of  farming  prod- 
uce, and  rather  approaches  the  produce  of  the  gardener. 

But  I  now  come  to  the  region  of  what  I  have  presumed  to  call 
quack  remedies.  There  is  a  quack  remedy  which  is  called  reci- 
procity. Let  me  test,  gentlemen,  the  efficacy  of  this  quack  remedy 
for  your  agricultural  pressure,  and  general  distress.  Pray  watch 
its  operation ;  pray  note  what  is  said  by  the  advocates  of  reci- 
procity. They  always  say.  We  are  the  soundest  and  best  free 
traders.  We  recommend  reciprocity  because  it  is  the  truly  effectual 
method  of  bringing  about  free  trade.  At  present  America  imposes 
enormous  duties  upon  our  cotton  goods  and  upon  our  iron  goods. 
Put  reciprocity  into  play,  and  America  will  become  a  free-trading 
country.  Very  well,  gentlemen,  how  would  that  operate  upon  you 
agriculturists  in  particular  ?  Why,  it  would  operate  thus :  If  your 
condition  is  to  be  regretted  in  certain  particulars,  and  capable  of 
amendment,  I  beg  you  to  cast  an  eye  of  sympathy  upon  the  condi- 
tion of  the  American  agriculturist.  It  has  been  very  well  said,  and 
very  truly  said,  —  though  it  is  a  smart  antithesis,  —  the  American 
agriculturist  has  got  to  buy  everything  that  he  wants  at  prices 
which  are  fixed  in  Washington  by  the  legislation  of  America,  but 
he  has  got  to  sell  everything  that  he  produces  at  prices  which  are 
fixed  in  Liverpool  —  fixed  by  the  free  competition  of  the  world. 
How  would  you  like  that,  gentlemen,  —  to  have  protective  prices 
to  pay  for  everything  that  you  use,  and  at  the  same  time  to  have  to 
sell  what  you  produce  in  the  free  and  open  market  of  the  world  ? 


152  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

II.    FOREIGN   POLICY 

Mr.  Gladstone  discusses  what  he  calls  the  "  exploded  doctrine  of  pro- 
tection." He  declares  that  the  Conservative  party  used  it  as  a  campaign 
cry,  and  when  they  got  into  office  they  threw  it  to  the  winds.  He  then  goes 
on  to  enunciate  his  principles  of  foreign  policy. 

Gentlemen,  I  will  tell  you  what  I  think  to  be  the  right  principles 
of  foreign  policy.  The  first  thing  is  to  foster  the  strength  of  the 
empire  by  just  legislation  and  economy  at  home,  thereby  produc- 
ing two  of  the  great  elements  of  national  power  —  namely,  wealth, 
which  is  a  physical  element,  and  union  and  contentment,  which  are 
moral  elements,  and  to  reserve  the  strength  of  the  empire,  to 
reserve  the  expenditure  of  that  strength,  for  great  and  worthy  occa- 
sions abroad.  Here  is  my  principle  of  foreign  policy — good  govern- 
ment at  home. 

My  second  principle  of  foreign  policy  is  this  :  that  its  aim  ought 
to  be  to  preserve  to  the  nations  of  the  world  —  and  especially,  were 
it  but  for  shame,  when  we  recollect  the  sacred  name  we  bear  as 
Christians,'  especially  to  the  Christian  nations  of  the  world  —  the 
blessings  of  peace.    That  is  my  second  principle. 

My  third  principle  is  this  :  even,  gentlemen,  when  you  do  a  good 
thing,  you  may  do  it  in  so  bad  a  way  that  you  may  entirely  spoil 
the  beneficial  effect ;  and  if  we  were  to  make  ourselves  the  apostles 
of  peace  in  the  sense  of  conveying  to  the  minds  of  other  nations 
that  we  thought  ourselves  more  entitled  to  an  opinion  on  that 
subject  than  they  are,  or  to  deny  their  rights  —  well,  very  likely  we 
should  destroy  the  whole  value  of  our  doctrines.  In  my  opinion  the 
third  sound  principle  is  this:  to  strive  to  cultivate  and  maintain, 
aye,  to  the  very  uttermost,  what  is  called  the  concert  of  Europe ; 
to  keep  the  powers  of  Europe  in  union  together.  And  why  ?  Be- 
cause by  keeping  all  in  union  together  you  neutralize,  and  fetter, 
and  bind  up  the  selfish  aims  of  each.  I  am  not  here  to  flatter  either 
England  or  any  of  them.  They  are  selfish  aims,  as,  unfortunately, 
we  in  late  years  have  too  sadly  shown  that  we,  too,  have  had  selfish 
aims ;  but  their  common  action  is  fatal  to  selfish  aims.    Common 


WILLIAM  E.  GLADSTONE  1 53 

action  means  common  objetts  ;  and  the  only  objects  for  which  you 
can  unite  together  the  powers  of  Europe  are  objects  connected  with 
the  common  good  of  them  all.  That,  gentlemen,  is  my  third  prin- 
ciple of  foreign  policy. 

My  fourth  principle  is,  that  you  should  avoid  needless  and  en- 
tari^ling  engagements.  You  may  boast  about  them,  you  may  brag 
about  them,  you  may  say  you  are  procuring  consideration  for  the 
country.  You  may  say  that  an  Englishman  can  now  hold  up  his 
head  among  the  nations.  You  may  say  that  he  is  now  not  in  the 
hands  of  a  Liberal  ministry,  who  thought  of  nothing  but  pounds, 
shillings,  and  pence.  But  what  does  all  this  come  to,  gentlemen  ? 
It  comes  to  this :  that  you  are  increasing  your  engagements  with- 
out increasing  your  strength ;  and  if  you  increase  engagements  with- 
out increasing  strength,  you  diminish  strength,  you  abolish  strength ; 
you  really  reduce  the  empire  and  do  not  increase  it.  You  render 
it  less  capable  of  performing  its  duties ;  you  render  it  an  inherit- 
ance less  precious  to  hand  on  to  future  generations. 

My  fifth  principle  is  this,  gentlemen :  to  acknowledge  the  equal 
rights  of  all  nations.  You  may  sympathize  with  one  nation  more 
than  another.  Nay,  you  must  sympathize  in  certain  circumstances 
with  one  nation  more  than  another.  You  sympathize  most  with 
those  nations,  as  a  rule,  with  which  you  have  the  closest  connection 
in  language,  in  blood,  and  in  religion,  or  whose  circumstances  at 
the  time  seem  to  give  the  strongest  claim  to  sympathy.  But  in 
point  of  right  all  are  equal  and  you  have  no  right  to  set  up  a  sys- 
tem under  which  one  of  them  is  to  be  placed  under  moral  suspicion 
or  espionage,  or  to  be  made  the  constant  subject  of  invective.  If 
you  do  that,  but  especially  if  you  claim  for  yourself  a  superiority, 
a  Pharisaical  superiority  over  the  whole  of  them,  then  I  say  you 
may  talk  about  your  patriotism  if  you  please,  but  you  are  a  mis- 
judging friend  of  your  country,  and  in  undermining  the  basis  of 
the  esteem  and  respect  of  other  people  for  your  country  you  are 
in  reality  inflicting  the  severest  injury  upon  it.  I  have  now  given 
you,  gentlemen,  five  principles  of  foreign  policy.  Let  me  give  you 
a  sixth,  and  then  I  have  done. 


154  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

And  that  sixth  is,  that  in  my  opinibn  foreign  policy  is  subject 
to  all  the  limitations  that  I  have  described ;  the  foreign  policy  of 
England  should  always  be  inspired  by  the  love  of  freedom.  There 
should  be  a  sympathy  with  freedom,  a  desire  to  give  it  scope, 
founded  not  upon  visionary  ideas,  but  upon  the  long  experience 
of  many  generations  within  the  shores  of  this  happy  isle,  thaf  in 
freedom  you  lay  the  firmest  foundations  both  of  loyalty  and  order ; 
the  firmest  foundations  for  the  development  of  individual  charac- 
ter, and  the  best  provision  for  the  happiness  of  the  nation  at  large. 
In  the  foreign  policy  of  this  country  the  name  of  Canning  ever 
will  be  honored.  The  name  of  Russell  ever  will  be  honored.  The 
name  of  Palmerston  ever  will  be  honored  by  those  who  recollect 
the  erection  of  the  kingdom  of  Belgium,  and  the  union  of  the  dis- 
joined provinces  of  Italy.  It  is  that  sympathy,  not  a  sympathy  with 
disorder,  but,  on  the  contrary,  founded  upon  the  deepest  and  most 
profound  love  of  order  —  it  is  that  sympathy  which  in  my  opinion 
ought  to  be  the  very  atmosphere  in  which  a  foreign  secretary  of 
England  ought  to  live  and  to  move. 


III.    NATIONAL  EQUALITY 

Gladstone  charges  her  Majesty's  ministry  with  having  estranged  the 
feelings  of  Russia  and  at  the  same  time  with  having  aggrandized  her 
power.  He  then  proceeds  to  discuss  his  own  policy  and  that  of  the  Liberals 
toward  foreign  nations. 

Gentlemen,  the  prime  minister,  speaking  out,  has  made  what  I 
think  one  of  the  most  unhappy  and  ominous  allusions  ever  made 
by  a  minister  of  this  country.  He  quoted  certain  words,  easily 
rendered  as  "empire  and  liberty" — words  of  a  Roman  statesman, 
words  descriptive  of  the  state  of  Rome  —  and  he  quoted  them  as 
words  which  were  capable  of  legitimate  application  to  the  position 
and  circumstances  of  England.  I  join  the  issue  with  the  prime 
minister  upon  that  subject,  and  I  affirm  that  nothing  can  be  more 
fundamentally  unsound,  more  practically  ruinous,  than  the  establish- 
ment of  Roman  analogies  for  the  guidance  of  British  policy.   What, 


WILLIAM  E.  GLADSTONE  1 55 

gentlemen,  was  Rome  ?  Rome  was  indeed  an  imperial  state,  —  a 
state  having  a  mission  to  subdue  the  worid,  whose  very  basis  it 
was  to  deny  the  equal  rights,  to  prescribe  the  independent  existence 
of  other  nations.    That,  gentlemen,  was  the  Roman  idea. 

We  are  told  to  fall  back  upon  this  example.  No  doubt  the  word 
"empire"  was  qualified  with  the  word  "liberty."  But  what  did  the 
two  words,  "liberty"  and  "empire"  mean  in  a  Roman  mouth? 
They  meant  simply  this:  "liberty  for  ourselves,  empire  over  the 
rest  of  mankind." 

I  do  not  think,  gentlemen,  that  this  ministry,  or  any  other 
ministry,  is  going  to  place  us  in  the  position  of  Rome,  What  I 
object  to  is  the  revival  of  the  idea.  I  care  not  how  feebly,  I  care 
not  even  how  —  from  a  philosophic  or  historical  point  of  view  — 
how  ridiculous  the  attempt  at  this  revival  may  be.  I  say  it  indicates 
an  intention  —  I  say  it  indicates  a  frame  of  mind,  and  the  frame 
of  mind,  unfortunately,  I  find,  has  been  consistent  with  the  policy 
of  which  I  have  given  you  some  illustrations — the  policy  of  denying 
to  others  the  rights  that  we  claim  ourselves. 

No  doubt,  gentlemen,  Rome  may  have  had  its  work  to  do,  and 
Rome  did  its  work.  But  modern  times  have  brought  a  different 
state  of  things.  Modern  times  have  established  a  sisterhood  of 
nations,  equal,  independent,  each  of  them  built  up  under  that  legiti- 
mate defense  which  public  law  affords  to  every  nation,  living  within 
its  own  borders  and  seeking  to  perform  its  own  affairs ;  but  if  one 
thing  more  than  another  has  been  detestable  to  Europe,  it  has 
been  the  appearance  upon  the  stage  from  time  to  time  of  men 
who,  even  in  the  times  of  ^the  Christian  civilization,  have  been 
thought  to  aim  at  universal  dominion.  It  was  this  aggressive  dis- 
position on  the  part  of  Louis  XIV,  king  of  France,  that  led  your 
forefathers,  gentlemen,  freely  to  spend  their  blood  and  treasure  in 
a  cause  not  immediately  their  own,  and  to  struggle  against  the 
method  of  policy  which,  having  Paris  for  its  center,  seemed  to  aim 
at  a  universal  monarchy. 

It  was  the  very  same  thing,  a  century  and  a  half  later,  which 
was  the  charge  launched,  and  justly  launched,  against  Napoleon ; 


156  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

that  under  his  dominion  France  was  not  content  even  with  her 
extended  limits,  but  Germany,  and  Italy  and  Spain,  apparently 
without  any  limit  to  this  pestilent  and  pernicious  process,  were  to 
be  brought  under  the  dominion  or  influence  of  France,  and  national 
equality  was  to  be  trampled  under  foot  and  national  rights  denied. 
For  that  reason,  England  in  the  struggle  almost  exhausted  herself, 
greatly  impoverished  her  people,  brought  upon  herself,  and  Scot- 
land too,  the  consequences  of  a  debt  that  nearly  crushed  their 
energies,  and  poured  forth  their  best  blood  without  limit,  in  order 
to  resist  and  put  down  these  intolerable  pretensions. 

Gentlemen,  it  is  but  in  a  pale  and  weak  and  almost  despicable 
miniature  that  such  ideas  are  now  set  up,  but  you  will  observe  that 
the  poison  lies  —  that  the  poison  and  the  mischief  lie  —  in  the 
principle  and  not  the  scale. 

It  is  the  opposite  principle  which,  I  say,  has  been  compromised 
by  the  action  of  the  ministry,  and  which  I  call  upon  you,  and  upon 
any  who  choose  to  hear  my  views,  to  vindicate  when  the  day  of 
our  election  comes  ;  I  mean  the  sound  and  the  sacred  principle  that 
Christendom  is  formed  of  a  band  of  nations  who  are  united  to  one 
another  in  the  bonds  of  right ;  that  they  are  without  distinction  of 
great  and  small ;  there  is  an  absolute  equality  between  them  —  the 
same  sacredness  defends  the  narrow  limits  of  Belgium  as  attaches 
to  the  extended  frontiers  of  Russia,  or  Germany,  or  France.  I  hold 
that  he  who  by  act  or  word  brings  that  principle  into  peril  .or  dis- 
paragement, however  honest  his  intentions  may  be,  places  himself  in 
the  position  of  one  inflicting  —  I  will  not  say  intending  to  inflict  — 
I  ascribe  nothing  of  the  sort  —  but  inflicting  injury  upon  his 
country,  and  endangering  the  peace  and  all  the  most  fundamental 
interests  of  Christian  society. 


WILLIAM  E.  GLADSTONE  1 57 

HOME  RULE  FOR  IRELAND 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  speech  delivered  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  May  10,  1886.  There  had  recently  been  a  Parliamentary  election 
on  the  issue  Qf  autonomy  for  Ireland,  and  the  Liberal  party  had  been  re- 
turned to  power  with  Gladstone  at  its  head.  In  answer  to  accusations  that 
he  had  formerly  opposed  this  measure  he  declared  that  he  had  never  in 
his  life  thought  Home  Rule  "incompatible  with  imperial  unity." 

Two  conditions  have  always  been  absolute  and  indispensable 
with  me  in  regard  to  Home  Rule.  In  the  first  place,  it  was  abso- 
lutely necessary  that  it  should  be  shown,  by  marks  at  once  une- 
quivocal and  perfectly  constitutional,  to  be  the  desire  of  the  great 
mass  of  the  population  of  Ireland ;  and  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say 
that  that  condition  has  never  been  absolutely  and  unequivocally 
fulfilled,  in  a  manner  to  make  its  fulfillment  undeniable,  until  the 
occasion  of  the  recent  election. 

The  second  question  is  this :  Is  Home  Rule  a  thing  compatible 
or  incompatible  with  the  unity  of  the  empire }  Again  and  again,  as 
may  be  in  the  recollection  of  Irish  members,  I  have  challenged,  in 
this  House  and  elsewhere,  explanations  upon  the  subject,  in  order 
that  we  might  have  clear  knowledge  of  what  it  was  they  so  veiled 
under  the  phrase,  not  exceptionable  in  itself,  but  still  open  to  a 
multitude  of  interpretations.  Well,  that  question  was  settled  in  my 
mind  on  the  first  night  of  the  present  session,  when  the  honorable 
gentleman,  the  leader  of  what  is  termed  the  Nationalist  party  from 
Ireland,  declared  unequivocally  that  what  he  sought  under  the  name 
of  Home  Rule  was  autonomy  for  Ireland.  "Autonomy"  is  a  name 
well  known  to  European  law  and  practice  as  importing,  under  a 
historical  signification  sufficiently  definite  for  every  practical  pur- 
pose, the  management  and  control  of  the  affairs  of  the  territory  to 
which  the  word  is  applied,  and  as  being  perfectly  compatible  with 
the  full  maintenance  of  imperial  unity.  If  any  part  of  what  I  have 
said  is  open  to  challenge,  it  can  be  challenged  by  those  who  read 
my  speeches,  and  I  believe  that  what  I  have  said  now  is  the  exact, 
literal,  and  absolute  truth  as  to  the  state  of  the  case. 


158  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

What  was  the  cry  of  those  who  resisted  the  concession  of  auton- 
omy to  Canada  ?  It  was  the  cry  which  has  slept  for  a  long  time, 
and  which  has  acquired  vigor  from  sleeping,  the  cry  of  the  unity 
of  the  empire.  Well,  sir,  in  my  opinion  the  relation  with  Canada 
was  one  of  very  great  danger  to  the  unity  of  the  empire  at  one 
time,  but  it  was  the  remedy  for  the  mischief  and  not  the  mischief 
itself  which  was  regarded  as  dangerous  to  the  unity  of  the  empire. 
Here  I  contend  that  the  cases  are  precisely  parallel,  and  that  there 
is  danger  to  the  unity  of  the  empire  in  your  relations  with  Ireland  ; 
but,  unfortunately,  while  you  are  perfectly  right  in  raising  the  cry, 
you  are  applying  the  cry  and  the  denunciation  to  the  remedy, 
whereas  you  ought  to  apply  it  to  the  mischief. 

In  those  days  what  happened  ?  In  those  days,  habitually  in  this 
House,  the  mass  of  the  people  of  Canada  were  denounced  as 
rebels.  Some  of  them  were  Protestants  and  of  English  and  Scotch 
birth.  The  majority  of  them  were  Roman  Catholic  and  of  French 
extraction.  The  French  rebelled.  Was  that  because  they  were  of 
French  extraction  and  because  they  were  Roman  Catholics  ?  No, 
sir ;  for  the  English  of  Upper  Canada  did  exactly  the  same  thing. 
Well,  these  subjects  of  her  Majesty  rebelled,  —  were  driven  to  re- 
bellion and  were  put  down.  We  were  perfectly  victorious  over 
them,  and  what  then  happened  ?  Direcdy  the  military  victory  was 
assured  —  as  Mr.  Burke  told  the  men  of  -the  day  of  the  American 
War  —  the  moment  the  military  victory  was  assured,  the  political 
difficulty  began.  Did  .they  feel  it  ?  They  felt  it ;  they  gave  way  to  it. 
The  victors  were  the  vanquished,  for  if  we  were  victors  in  the  field 
we  were  vanquished  in  the  arena  of  reason.  We  acknowledged  that 
we  were  vanquished,  and  within  two  years  gave  complete  autonomy 
to  Canada.  And  now  gentlemen  have  forgotten  this  great  lesson 
of  history.  By  saying  that  the  case  of  Canada  has  no  relation  to  the 
case  of  Ireland,  I  refer  to  that  little  sentence  written  by  Sir  Charles 
Duffy,  who  himself  exhibits  in  his  own  person  as  vividly  as  anybody 
the  transition  from  a  discontented  to  a  loyal  subject.  ''Canada  did 
not  get  Home  Rule  because  she  was  loyal  and  friendly,  but  she  has 
become  loyal  and  friendly  because  she  got  Home  Rule." 


WILLIAM   E.  GLADSTONE  I  59 

Now  I  come  to  another  topic,  and  I  wish  to  remind  you  as  well 
as  I  can  of  the  definition  of  the  precise  issue  which  is  at  the  present 
moment  placed  before  us.  In  the  introduction  of  this  bill  I  ven- 
tured to  say  that  its  object  was  to  establish,  by  the  authority  of 
Parliament,  a  legislative  body  to  sit  in  Dublin  for  the  conduct  of 
both  legislation  and  administration  under  the  conditions  which  may 
be  prescribed  by  the  act  defining  Irish  as  distinctive  from  imperial 
affairs.  I  laid  down  five,  and  five  only,  essential  conditions  which 
we  deemed  it  to  be  necessary  to  observe.  The  first  was  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  unity  of  the  empire  ;  the  second  was  political  equality ; 
the  third  was  the  equitable  distribution  of  imperial  burdens ;  the 
fourth  was  the  protection  of  minorities ;  and  the  fifth  was  that  the 
measure  which  we  proposed  to  Parliament  should  present  the  es- 
sential character  and  characteristics  of  a  settlement  of  the  question. 

A  question  so  defined  for  the  establishment  of  a  legislative  body 
to  have  effective  control  of  legislation  and  administration  in  Ireland 
for  Irish  affairs,  and  subject  to  those  conditions  about  which,  after 
all,  there  does  not  appear  in  principle  to  be  much  difference  of 
opinion  arnong  us,  —  that  is  the  question  on  which  the  House  is 
called  to  give  a  vote,  as  solemn  and  as  important  as  almost,  per- 
haps, any  in  the  long  and  illustrious  records  of  its  history. 


PATRICK  HENRY 


Patrick  Henry  (i 736-1 799),  the  "Forest-Born  Demos- 
thenes "  of  our  early  history,  had  his  Uterary  training  in  a 
private  school  in  Virginia,  under  the  personal   direction  of 

his  father  and  his  uncle, 
both  of  whom  were  well 
versed  in  the  classics.  He 
was  trained  in  the  English 
branches,  and  had  a  pretty 
thorough  course  in  Latin 
for  that  time.  He  could 
read  Cicero  and  Virgil 
from  the  Latin,  and  was 
very  fond  of  a  translation 
of  *the  writings  of  Livy, 
whose  republican  spirit 
greatly  appealed  to  him. 
He  was  fond  of  history, 
especially  that  of  Greece 
and  Rome,  and  having  a 
very  tenacious  memory,  it 
was  easy  for  him  to  remem- 
ber the  incidents  and  details.  But  more  attractive  to  him  than 
literary  pursuits  were  the  haunts  of  nature.  As  a  boy  he  would 
be  away  from  home  days  at  a  time,  hunting  and  fishing.  He 
loved  to  be  in  the  woods,  on  the  mountains,  along  the  streams 
of  his  native  country.  At  such  times  he  was  deep  in  thought. 
What  little  he  read  was  food  for  long-continued  and  deep 
reflection.     In  very  truth,  Henry  was  a  self-made  man. 

160 


PATRICK  HENRY  l6l 

Then,  too,  in  his  early  manhood  he  became  a  great  student 
of  human  nature.  While  clerking  in  a  country  store  he  had 
opportunity  to  meet  and  converse  with  those  who  came  to 
trade,  or  to  loiter  about  the  place.  It  was  here  that  he 
acquainted  himself  with  the  varied  phases  of  the  human  in- 
tellect ;  here  he  learned  how  to  touch  the  springs  of  passion. 
He  would  tell  these  people  stories,  always  to  delighted  lis- 
teners ;  would  get  them  into  heated  debates  with  one  another ; 
would  note  the  effect  of  his  own  humor,  pathos,  and  argument 
upon  them.  It  was  a  school  of  discussion,  a  practical  school 
of  public  speaking,  like  that  in  which,  a  century  later,  that 
other  ''  forest-born  "  apostle  of  freedom,  Abraham  Lincoln, 
obtained  his  severest  and  best  training.  So  deeply  conversant 
with  human  nature  did  he  become,  and  so  fascinated  with 
the  study  of  men,  that  he  once  said  to  a  friend  who  called 
his  attention  to  certain  new  books,  ''  Read  men  ;  they  are  the 
only  volumes  we  can  peruse  to  advantage."  This  knowledge 
of  human  nature  and  his  ability  to  learn  from  those  about 
him  formed  a  great  source  of  power  in  him  as  an  orator.  It 
was  practical  technique  in  oratory.  It  was  conversational 
public  speaking,  the  best  basis  of  training. 

Patrick  Henry  inherited  oratorical  talent.  His  uncle  on 
his  mother's  side  was  William  Winston,  one  of  the  most 
brilliant  and  effective  political  speakers  of  the  day ;  and 
we  are  told  that  his  mother  was  "  eminently  endowed  with 
amiability,  intelligence,  and  the  fascinations  of  a  graceful 
^  .elocution." 

"^  Having  failed  as  farmer  and  merchant,  Henry,  at  the  age 
of  twenty-four,  took  to  the  study  of  law,  and  after  a  course  of 
but  six  weeks  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  Here  he  found  ample 
opportunity  for  development  as  a  speaker.  It  was  three  years 
later  that  a  suit  known  as  "  the  Parson's  Cause,"  in  which 
the  clergy  were  arrayed  against  the  people,  came  up  for  trial. 


l62  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

At  that  time  the  clergy  of  the  church  of  England  were 
paid  by  the  state,  and  the  people  were  taxed  for  their  sup- 
port. There  was  an  act  by  which  the  stipend  could  be  paid 
in  tobacco,  then  a  staple  product  of  Virginia,  at  so  much  a 
hundred  pounds.  In  the  face  of  the  shortage  of  crops  in 
which  the  price  of  tobacco  increased  to  three  times  the 
original  value,  another  act  was  passed  by  which  the  farmers 
were  allowed  to  pay  their  strpend  either  in  tobacco  or  in 
money  at  the  old  rate.  As  this  had  not  been  sanctioned  by 
the  king,  the  clergy  sued  to  have  their  pay  in  tobacco.  As 
this  would  treble  the  salaries  of  the  clergy,  the  people  felt 
the  injustice  of  the  suit  and  opposed  it. 

Henry  was  chosen  counsel  for  the  people.  When  the  case 
came  up  for  trial  the  excitement  was  great ;  the  court  room 
was  crowded  to  suffocation,  and  an  immense  throng  crowded 
around  the  windows  and  doors.  Henry's  father  was  the  pre- 
siding judge,  and  there  were  many  of  the  clergy  on  the  benches 
before  him.  The  scene  is-  thus  graphically  described  by  Wil- 
liam Wirt :  "  Now  came  the  first  trial  of  Henry's  strength. 
No  one  had  ever  heard  him  speak,  and  curiosity  was  on  tiptoe. 
He  rose  very  awkwardly  and  faltered  much  in  his  exordium. 
The  people  hung  their  heads  at  so  unpromising  a  commence- 
ment ;  the  clergy  were  observed  to  exchange  sly  looks  with 
each  other  ;  and  his  father  is  described  as  having  almost  sunk 
with  confusion  from  his  seat.  But  these  feelings  were  of 
short  duration,  and  soon  gave  place  to  others,  of  a  very  dif- 
ferent character.  For  now  were  developed  for  the  first  time 
those  wonderful  faculties  which  he  possessed ;  and  now  was 
first  witnessed  that  mysterious  and  almost  supernatural  trans- 
formation of  appearance,  which  the  fire  of  his  own  eloquence 
never  failed  to  work  in  him.  .  .  .  The  spirit  of  his  genius 
awakened  all  his  features.  His  countenance  shone  with  a 
nobleness  and   grandeur  which   it  never   before    exhibited. 


PATRICK  HENRY  163 

There  was  a  lightning  in  his  eyes  which  seemed  to  rive  the 
spectator.  His  action  became  graceful,  bold,  and  command- 
ing ;  and  in  the  tones  of  his  voice,  but  more  especially  in 
his  emphasis,  there  was  a  peculiar  charm,  a  magic  of  which 
any  one  who  ever  heard  him  will  speak  as  soon  as  he  is 
named,  but  of  which  no  one  can  give  an  adequate  descrip- 
tion. .  .  .  The  mockery  of  the  clergy  was  turned  into  alarm, 
their  triumph  into  confusion  and  despair;  and  at  one  burst 
of  his  rapid  and  overwhelming  invective  they  fled  in  precip- 
itation and  terror.  As  for  the  father,  such  was  his  surprise, 
such  his  amazement,  such  his  rapture,  that,  forgetting  where 
he  was,  and  the  position  he  was  filling,  tears  of  ecstasy 
streamed  down  his  cheeks,  without  the  power  or  inclination 
to  repress  them.  .  .  .  The  people  who  had  with  difficulty 
kept  their  hands  off  their  champion,  from  the  moment  of 
closing  his  harangue,  no  sooner  saw  the  fate  of  the  cause 
finally  sealed,  than  they  seized  him  at  the  bar,  and  in  spite 
of  his  own  exertions  and  the  continued  cry  of  '  order '  from  the 
sheriffs  and  the  court,  bore  him  out  of  the  courthouse,  and 
raising  him  on  their  shoulders,  carried  him  about  the  yard  in 
triumph."  The  verdict  for  one  penny  damages  was  for  the 
clergy,  but  the  fact  that  they  were  denied  a  new  trial  made  it  a  . 
triumph  for  the  people,  and  Patrick  Henry  became  their  idol. 
His  success  in  this  case  gave  Henry  a  great  reputation  in 
Virginia  and  forced  him  into  leadership,  and  at  the  same  time 
it  was  a  telling  blow  against  the  union  of  church  and  state  in 
America.  From  this  time  on,  his  political  advancement  was 
rapid.  No  office  in  the  gift  of  the  people  of  his  state  was  too 
good  for  him.  He  became  a  member  of  the  House  of  Bur- 
gesses, was  elected  governor  of  Virginia,  member  of  the 
federal  Congress,  and  delegate  to  the  constitutional  con- 
ventions, both  state  and  national.  In  all  of  these  positions 
he  made  great  use  of  his  marvelous  gift  of  eloquence.    It  was 


l64  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

in  the  Virginia  convention,  on  March  20,  1775,  that  he  de- 
livered his  "  Call  to  Arms,"  parts  of  which  are  so  well  known 
to  every  American  schoolboy.  The  measures  he  advocated 
sent  a  shock  of  consternation  through  the  conservative  as- 
sembly and  caused  them  to  oppose  the  resolutions  offered 
with  all  their  power.  Great  was  their  astonishment  when 
Henry  exclaimed,  "  Caesar  had  his  Brutus,  Charles  I  his  Crom- 
well, and  George  III" —  "Treason  !  "  called  out  the  speaker. 
"Treason  !  treason !  "  echoed  the  members  —  "  may  profit  by 
their  example.  If  this  be  treason,  make  the  most  of  it."  Of 
this  scene  Thomas  Jefferson  afterwards  said:  "The  debate 
was  most  bloody  ...  I  well  remember  the  cry  of  '  treason '  by 
the  speaker,  echoed  from  every  part  of  the  house  against  Mr. 
Henry.  I  well  remember  his  pause,  and  the  admirable  address 
with  which  he  recovered  himself  and  baffled  the  charge  thus 
vociferated."  When  Henry  closed  with  the  memorable  words, 
"  I  know  not  what  course  others  may  take,  but  as  for  me,  give 
me  liberty  or  give  me  death  !  "  the  effect  was  overwhelming. 
All  objections  were  swept  away  and  the  measure  was  adopted. 
This  has  justly  been  called  one  of  the  six  great  triumphs  in 
the  history  of  American  eloquence. 
^  The  chief  characteristics  of  Henry's  style  are  ruggedness 
and  force.  His  fluency  was  unequaled,  his  vocabulary  exten- 
sive. He  never  wearied  with  repetitions  or  by  too  minute 
analysis,  but  by  a  few  master  strokes  won  his  audience  to  his 
way  of  thinking.  He  spoke  logically  and  consistently,  with 
little  preparation,  a  great  and  almost  incredible  gift,  found 
but  once  in  scores  of  years.  He  seldom  wrote.  There  is  little 
of  his  eloquence  that  is  authenticated,  and  only  a  few  imper- 
fect fragments  of  -speeches  to  judge  from.  In  diction  he  was 
simple  and  natural,  choosing  rather  to  use  plain  words  than 
fine  ones ;  delicate  and  felicitous  in  his  touches,  apt  in  his 
images  and  illustrations,  intent  more  on  the  strength,  even 


PATRICK  HENRY  165 

the  abruptness,  of  his  blows  than  upon  their  elegance.  He 
was  essentially  an  extemporaneous  orator,  guided  by  a  thought- 
ful outline  of  his  speech.  Thomas  Jefferson  speaks  of  him 
as  possessing  ''poetical  fancy,  sublime  imagination,  and  over- 
whelming diction."  And  Wirt  admired  his  "power  of  throw- 
ing his  reasoning  into  short  and  clear  aphorisms,  which 
supplied  in  a  great  degree  the  place  of  method  and  logic ; 
that  imagination  so  copious,  poetic,  and  sublime  ;  the  irresisti- 
ble power  with  which  he  caused  every  passion  to  rise  at  his 
bidding;  and  all  the  rugged  might  and  majesty  of  his  elo- 
quence.'^^ 

In  personal  appearance  he  was  manly  and  impressive.  He 
was  nearly  six  feet  in  height,  thin,  raw-boned,  and  somewhat 
stooped.  Brilliant  blue  eyes  looked  out  from  his  shaggy 
eyebrows.  In  complexion  he  was  dark  and  sallow.  He  was 
rather  indolent  in  his  general  mien,  and  wore  a  grave  and 
somber  look  which  was  heightened  by  a  habitual  contraction 
of  the  brows.  His  voice,  though  not  remarkable  for  sweetness 
and  melody,  was  wonderful  in  its  effect.  It  was  voluminous, 
wide  of  compass,  and  there  was  remarkable  ease  and  variety 
in  its  inflections.  Adaptable  to  emotion,  his  voice  ranged  from 
soft  pathos  to  overwhelming  rage.  There  was  no  continuous 
vociferation  to  weary  the  ear,  but  a  restful  variety  and  a  clear 
enunciation  that  were  soothing  to  the  nerves.  His  biographers 
tell  us  that  his  voice  never  seemed  fatigued.  He  was  deliber- 
ate, and  never  so  lost  control  of  himself  as  to  be  hurried  or 
precipitate.  To  this  end  he  used  pause  with  fine  effect,  not 
with  any  studied  purpose  but  as  a  means  of  calling  attention 
to  important  points. 

^  His  delivery  ranged  from  the  conversational  to  the  grand 
and  lofty.  Though  often  awkward  in  his  movements,  he  was 
usually  dignified  and  temperate  in  action.  It  was  the  binding 
spell  of  his  bright  eye  that  so  held  the  attention  of  his  juries. 


l66  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

Wirt  says  in  regard  to  his  gestures  :  "Whenever  he  moved 
his  arm  or  his  hand  or  even  his  finger,  or  changed  the  position 
of  his  body,  it  was  always  to  some  purpose  ;  nothing  was 
inefficient,  everything  told ;  every  gesture,  every  attitude, 
every  look  was  emphatic  ;  all  was  animation,  energy,  and  dig- 
nity. The  great  advantage  consisted  in  this :  that  various,  bold, 
and  original  as  was  his  action,  it  never  appeared  to  be  studied, 
affected,  or  theatrical,  or  '  to  overstep '  in  the  smallest  degree 
'the  modesty  of  nature' ;  for  he  never  made  a  gesture  or 
assumed  an  attitude  which  did  not  seem  imperiously  de- 
manded by  the  occasion. 'V/ 

What  shall  be  said  of  the  effect  of  Henry's  eloquence  ? 
We  have  already  said  much  on  this  point  and  have  left  much 
more  to  be  inferred.  John  Randolph  spoke  of  this  orator  of 
nature  as  "Shakespeare  and  Garrick  combined."  To  gain 
his  ends,  he  played  on  every  passion  of  the  human  heart, 
on  every  motive,  on  every  theme  of  persuasion.  Such  was 
his  knowledge  of  men  and  of  the  human  heart  that  he  could 
reach  the  cultured  and  the  ignorant  with  equal  facility.  "His 
appeals  to  the  heart,"  says  Magoon,  "were  not  less  forcible 
than  were  the  bolts  of  his  invective  or  the  deductions  of  his 
argument."  One  of  his  contemporaries  said  of  him  that  "in 
jury  trials,  where  his  wonderful  powers  of  oratory  could  be 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  motives  and  emotions  of  men,  he 
far  exceeded  all  his  contemporaries.  Over  his  juries  he  exer- 
cised a  magnetic  fascination  which  took  their  reason  captive 
and  decided  the  result  without  reference  to  the  merits  of 
the  case." 

Henry  was  a  man  of  high  Christian  character  and  unsullied 
reputation.  These  form  the  basis  of  statesmanship  and  true 
eloquence.  His  moral  instincts  were  acute,  his  sentiments 
exalted.  He  believed  that  moral  courage  should  constitute 
the  true  basis  of  oratorical  success  as  well  as  of  personal  honor. 


PATRICK  HENRY  167 

Magoon,  in  his  "Orators  of  the  Revolution,"  says:  "To 
think  vigorously,  and  fearlessly  to  say  what  you  think,  is  the 
only  way  to  be  effective  in  the  use  of  speech.  The  faculty  of 
profound  and  penetrating  thought  was  a  distinguishing  feature 
in  Henry's  mental  character,  and  the  boldness  with  which  he 
expressed  his  opinions  at  the  hazard  of  personal  convenience 
was  equally  remarkable." 

Henry  was  steadfast  in  purpose  and  thoroughly  self-pos- 
sessed, yet  sanguine  and  impetuous.  Virginia  ardor  and 
Scotch  common  sense  combined  in  happy  proportion  in  his 
character.  He  was  moody  at  times  and  fond  of  extremes  — 
profound  solitude  or  boisterous  glee,  deep,  silent  thought  or 
great  hilarity.  His  pleasantry,  fine  flow  of  spirits,  and  natural 
greatness  of  soul  were  sources  of  wide  influence  and  personal 
attachment. 

Henry  was  the  first  great  orator  produced  in  America  by 
the  revolutionary  spirit;  one  of  the  few  in  history  "so  quick 
in  apprehension  and  so  prompt  in  expression  as  really  to  be 
capable  at  all  times  of  speaking  extemporaneously  and  at  the 
same  time  with  the  greatest  possible  effectiveness."  He  was 
not  a  product  of  solitary  study  and  practice  in  the  principles 
of  oratory.  He  was  rather  a  dreamer  of  oratorical  form  and 
expression,  and  was  looked  upon  as  the  "orator  of  nature," 
who  possessed  a  kind  of  supernatural  inspiration.  *'0n  that 
account,"  says  Wirt,  "  he  was  much  more  revered  by  the 
people  than  if  he  had  been  formed  by  the  severest  discipline  of 
the  schools  ;  for  they  considered  him  as  bringing  his  creden- 
tials directly  from  heaven,  and  owing  no  part  of  his  greatness 
to  human  institutions."  Such  was  his  effectiveness  that  the 
best-trained  lawyers  found  it  difficult  to  cope  with  him  in 
debate  or  outdo  him  in  reflections  on  law  and  equity.  He 
exercised  great  influence  in  the  affairs  and  destinies  of  the 
states.    In  the  House  of  Burgesses  he  persuaded  Virginia  to 


l68  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

join  the  opposition  to  the  mother  country,  and  helped  to 
form  the  colonial  and  afterwards  the  federal  Union,  though 
opposed  to  some  features  of  the  Constitution.  His  chief  glory 
is  his  part  in  the  Revolution.  He  gave  the  first  great  impulse 
to  freedom,  and  lived  to  see  his  principles  adopted. 

An  English  writer  institutes  this  comparison  of  his  oratory 
with  that  of  Chatham  :  *'  There  was  a  startling  discrepancy 
between  their  births,  tastes,  habits,  and  pursuits.  .  .  .  But 
they  met  in  all  the  grand  elemental  points,  in  fire,  force, 
energy  and  intrepidity,  the  sagacity  that  works  by  intuition, 
the  faculty  of  taking  in  the  entire  subject  at  a  glance  or 
lighting  up  a  whole  question  by  a  metaphor,  the  fondness 
for  Saxon  words,  short,  uninverted  Saxon  sentences,  downright 
assertions,  and  hazardous  apostrophes,  —  above  all,  in  the 
singular  tact  and  felicity  with  which  their  dramatic  touches 
were  brought  in." 

THE  CALL  TO  ARMS 

Taken  from  the  speech  delivered  March  20,  1775,  in  the  Virginia 
Convention,  held  in  the  "  Old  Church  "  at  Richmond.  Henry,  the  embodi- 
ment of  the  spirit  of  the  Revolution,  spoke  as  one  inspired,  and  swept  all 
opposition  aside. 

Mr.  President,  it  is  natural  for  man  to  indulge  in  the  illusions 
of  hope.  We  are  apt  to  shut  our  eyes  against  a  painful  truth,  and 
listen  to  the  song  of  that  siren  till  she  transforms  us  into  beasts. 
Is  this  the  part  of  wise  men  engaged  in  the  great  and  arduous 
struggle  for  liberty  ?  Are  we  disposed  to  be  of  the  number  of 
those  who  having  eyes  see  not,  and  having  ears  hear  not,  the 
things  which  so  nearly  concern  their  tempor&l  salvation  ?  For  my 
part,  whatever  anguish  of  spirit  it  may  cost,  I  am  willing  to  know 
the  whole  truth ;  to  know  the  worst,  and  to  provide  for  it. 

I  have  but  one  lamp  by  which  my  feet  are  guided,  and  that  is 
the  lamp  of  experience.  I  know  of  no  way  of  judging  of  the 
future  but  by  the  past.    And,  judging  by  the  past,  I  wish  to  know 


PATRICK  HENRY  1 69 

what  there  has  been  in  the  conduct  of  the  British  Ministry  for  the 
last  ten  years  to  justify  those  hopes  with  which  gentlemen  have 
been  pleased  to  solace  themselves  and  the  House.  Is  it  that 
insidious  srnife  with  which  our  petition  has  been  lately  received  ? 
Trust  it  not,  sir ;  it  will  prove  a  snare  to  your  feet.  Suffer  not 
yourselves  to  be  betrayed  with  a  kiss.  Ask  yourselves  how  this 
gracious  reception  of  our  petition  comports  with  those  warlike 
preparations  which  cover  our  waters  and  darken  our  land.  Are 
fleets  and  armies  necessary  to  a  work  of  love  and  reconciliation .? 
Have  we  shown  ourselves  so  unwilling  to  be  reconciled  that  force 
must  be  called  in  to  win  back  our  love  ? 

Let  us  not  deceive  ourselves,  sir.  These  are  the  implements  of 
war  and  subjugation,  the  last  arguments  to  which  kings  resort.  I 
ask  gentlemen,  sir,  what  means  this  martial  array,  if  its  purposes 
be  not  to  force  us  to  submission  ?  Can  gentlemen  assign  any 
other  possible  motive  for  it  ?  Has  Great  Britain  any  enemy  in  this 
quarter  of  the  world  to  call  for  all  this  accumulation  of  navies  and 
armies  ?  No,  sir,  she  has  none.  They  are  meant  for  us.  They 
can  be  meant  for  no  other.  They  are  sent  over  to  bind  and  rivet 
upon  us  those  chains  which  the  British  Ministry  have  been  so 
long  forging. 

And  what  have  we  to  oppose  them  ?  Shall  we  try  argument? 
Sir,  we  have  been  trying  that  for  the  last  ten  years.  Have  we 
anything  new  to  offer  upon  the  subject  ?  Nothing.  We  have  held 
the  subject  up  in  every  light  of  which  it  is  capable  ;  but  it  has 
been  all  in  vain.  Shall  we  resort  to  entreaty  and  supplication  ? 
What  terms  shall  we  find  that  have  not  been  already  exhausted  ? 
Let  us  not,  I  beseech  you,  sir,  deceive  ourselves  longer.  Sir,  we 
have  done  everything  that  could  have  been  done  to  avert  the 
storm  that  is  now  coming  on.  We  have  petitioned,  we  have  remon- 
strated, we  have  supplicated,  we  have  prostrated  ourselves  before 
the  throne  and  have  implored  its  interposition  to  arrest  the  tyran- 
nical hands  of  the  Ministry  and  Parliament. 

Our  petitions  have  been  slighted,  our  remonstrances  have  pro- 
duced additional  violence  and  insult,  our  supplications  have  been 


I/O  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

disregarded,  and  we  have  been  spurned  with  contempt  from  the 
foot  of  the  throne.  In  vain,  after  these  things,  may  we  indulge 
the  fond  hope  of  peace  and  reconciliation.  There  is  no  longer  any 
room  for  hope.  If  we  wish  to  be  free,  if  we  mean  to  preserve  in- 
violate those  inestimable  privileges  for  which  we  have  been  so  long 
contending ;  if  we  mean  not  basely  to  abandon  the  noble  struggle 
in  which  we  have  been  so  long  engaged,  and  which  we  have  pledged 
ourselves  never  to  abandon  until  the  glorious  object  of  our  contest 
shall  be  obtained,  we  must  fight !  I  repeat  it,  sir,  we  must  fight ! 
An  appeal  to  arms  and  to  the  God  of  hosts  is  all  that  is  left  us. 

They  tell  us,  sir,  that  we  are  weak ;  unable  to  cope  with  so 
formidable  an  adversary.  But  when  shall  we  be  stronger  ?  Will  it 
be  the  next  week,  or  the  next  year  ?  Will  it  be  when  we  are  totally 
disarmed,  and  when  a  British  guard  shall  be  stationed  in  every 
house  ?  Shall  we  gather  strength  by  irresolution  and  inaction  ? 
Shall  we  acquire  the  means  of  effectual  resistance  by  lying  supinely 
on  our  backs,  and  hugging  the  delusive  phantom  of  hope,  until 
our  enemies  shall  have  bound  us  hand  and  foot  ?  Sir,  we  are  not 
weak  if  we  make  a  proper  use  of  those  means  which  the  God  of 
nature  hath  placed  in  our  power. 

Three  millions  of  people  armed  in  the  holy  cause  of  liberty,  and 
in  such  a  country  as  that  which  we  possess,  are  invincible  by  any 
force  which  our  enemy  can  send  against  us.  Besides,  sir,  we  shall 
not  fight  our  battles  alone.  There  is  a  just  God  who  presides  over 
the  destinies  of  nations, rand  who  will  raise  up  friends  to  fight  our 
battles  for  us.  The  battle,  sir,  is  not  to  the  strong  alone ;  it  is  to 
the  vigilant,  the  active,  the  brave.  Besides,  sir,  we  have  no  election. 
If  we  were  base  enough  to  desire  it,  it  is  now  too  late  to  retire 
from  the  contest.  There  is  no  retreat  but  in  submission  and 
slavery !  Our  chains  are  forged.  Their  clanking  may  be  heard  on 
the  plains  of  Boston !  The  war  is  inevitable,  and  let  it  come ! 
I  repeat,  sir,  let  it  come ! 

It  is  vain,  sir,  to  extenuate  the  matter.  Gentlemen  may  cry, 
Peace,  peace !  but  there  is  no  peace.  The  war  is  actually  begun ! 
The  next  gale  that  sweeps  from  the  North  will  bring  to  our  ears 


PATRICK  HENRY  I /I 

the  clash  of  resounding  arms !  Our  brethren  are  already  in  the 
field  !  Why  stand  we  here  idle  ?  What  is  it  that  gentlemen  wish  ? 
What  would  they  have  ?  Is  life  so  dear,  or  peace  so  sweet,  as  to 
be  purchased  at  the  price  of  chains  and  slavery?  Forbid  it,  Al- 
mighty God !  I  know  not  what  course  others  may  take,  but  as 
for  me,  give  me  liberty  or  give  me  death ! 

ADOPTION  OF  THE  CONSTITUTION 

This  speech  was  delivered  June  5,  1788,  in  the  Virginia  Constitutional 
Convention,  called  to  consider  the  adoption  of  the  federal  Constitution. 
James  Madison  favored  its  adoption.  Patrick  Henry  led  the  forces  of  the 
opposition.  The  discussion  by  these  and  other  men  lasted  for  three  weeks, 
when  a  vote  was  taken  which  resulted  in  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution 
by  a  small  majority.    The  following  is  the  main  speech  of  Patrick  Henry. 

I.    LIBERTY   OR  EMPIRE 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  wish  I  were  possessed  of  talents  or  possessed 
of  anything  that  might  enable  me  to  elucidate  this  great  subject.  I 
am  not  well  versed  in  history,  but  I  will  submit  to  your  recollec- 
tion, whether  liberty  has  been  destroyed  most  often  by  the  licen- 
tiousness of  the  people  or  by  the  tyranny  of  rulers.  I  imagine,  sir, 
you  will  find  the  balance  on  the  side  of  tyranny.  Happy  will  you 
be  if  you  miss  the  fate  of  those  nations,  who,  omitting  to  resist 
their  oppressors,  or  negligently  suffering  their  liberty  to  be  wrested 
from  them,  have  groaned  under  intolerable  despotism.  Most  of 
the  human  race  are  now  in  this  deplorable  condition ;  and  those 
nations  who  have  gone  in  search  of  grandeur,  power,  and  splendor 
have!  also  fallen  a  sacrifice,  and  been  the  victims  of  their  own 
folly.  While  they  acquired  those  visionary  blessings  they  lost 
their  freedom. 

My  great  objection  to  this  government  is,  that  it  does  not  leave 
us  the  means  of  defending  our  rights  or  of  waging  war  against 
tyrants.  It  is  urged  by  some  gentlemen  that  this  new  plan  will 
bring  us  an  acquisition  of  strength  —  an  army,  and  the  militia  of 
the  states.    This  is  an  idea  extremely  ridiculous  ;  gentlemen  cannot 


1/2  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

be  earnest.  This  acquisition  will  trample  on  our  fallen  liberty. 
Let  my  beloved  Americans  guard  against  this  fatal  lethargy  that 
has  pervaded  the  universe.  Have  we  the  means  of  resisting  dis- 
ciplined armies,  when  our  only  defense,  the  militia,  is  put  into  the 
hands  of  Congress  ?  The  honorable  gentleman  said  that  great 
danger  would  ensue  if  the  convention  rose  without  adopting  this 
system.  I  ask,  Where  is  that  danger  ?  I  see  none.  Other  gentle- 
men have  told  us,  within  these  walls,  that  the  union  is  gone  or 
that  the  union  will  be  gone.  Is  not  this  trifling  with  the  judgment 
of  their  fellow  citizens }  Till  they  tell  us  the  grounds  of  their  fears 
I  will  consider  them  as  imaginary. 

I  rose  to  make  inquiry  where  those  dangers  were.  They  could 
make  no  answer ;  I  believe  I  never  shall  have  that  answer.  Some 
minds  are  agitated  by  foreign  alarms.  Happily  for  us  there  is  no 
real  danger  from  Europe ;  that  country  is  engaged  in  more  arduous 
business.  From  that  quarter  there  is  no  cause  for  fear.  You  may 
sleep  in  safety  forever  for  them. 

Where  is  the  danger }  If,  sir,  there  is  any,  I  recur  to  the  Amer- 
ican/spirit to  defend  us  —  that  spirit  which  has  enabled  us  to  sur- 
mount the  greatest  difficulties.  To  that  illustrious  spirit  I  address 
my  most  fervent  prayer  to  prevent  our  adopting  a  system  destruc- 
tive to  liberty.  Let  not  genUemen  be  told  that  it  is  not  safe  to 
reject  this  government.  Wherefore  is  it  not  safe.?  We  are  told 
there  are  dangers,  but  those  dangers  are  ideal ;  they  cannot  be 
demonstrated.  To  encourage  us  to  adopt  it  they  tell  us  there  is 
a  plain,  easy  way  of  getting  amendments.  When  I  come  to  con- 
template this  part,  I  suppose  that  I  am  mad,  or  that  my  country- 
men are  so.  The  way  to  amendment  is,  in  my  conception,  shut. 
Let  us  consider  this  plain,  easy  way. 

It  appears  that  three  fourths  of  the  states  must  ultimately  agree 
to  any  amendments  that  may  be  necessary.  Let  us  consider  the 
consequence  of  this.  However  uncharitable  it  may  appear,  yet  I 
must  tell  my  opinion  —  that  the  most  unworthy  characters  may  get 
into  power  and  prevent  the  introduction  of  amendments.  Let  us 
suppose  —  for  the  case  is  supposable,  possible,  and  probable  —  that 


PATRICK  HENRY  1 73 

you  happened  to  deal  those  powers  to  unworthy  hands ;  will 
they  relinquish  powers  already  in  their  possession,  or  agree  to 
amendments  ?  Two  thirds  of  the  Congress,  or  of  the  state  legis- 
latures, are  necessary  even  to  propose  amendments.  If  one  third 
of  these  be  unworthy  men,  they  may  prevent  the  application  for 
amendments ;  but  what  is  destructive  and  mischievous  is,  that 
three  fourths  of  the  state  legislatures  or  of  the  state  conventions 
must  concur  in  the  amendments  when  proposed  !  In  such  numer- 
ous bodies  there  must  necessarily  be  some  designing,  bad  men. 
To  suppose  that  so  large  a  number  as  three  fourths  of  the  states 
will  concur,  is  to  suppose  that  they  will  possess  genius,  intelligence, 
and  integrity,  approaching  the  miraculous.  It  would  indeed  be 
miraculous  that  they  should  concur  in  the  same  amendments,  or 
even  in  such  as  would  bear  some  likeness  to  one  another ;  for  four 
of  the  smallest  states,  that  do  not  collectively  contain  one  tenth 
part  of  the  population  of  the  United  States,  may  obstruct  the  most 
salutary  and  necessary  amendments.  Nay,  in  these  four  states 
six  tenths  of  the  people  may  reject  these  amendments ;  and  sup- 
pose that  amendments  shall  be  opposed  to  amendments^  which  is 
highly  probable,  is  it  possible  that  three  fourths  can  ever  agree 
to  the  same  amendments  ?  A  bare  majority  in  these  four  small 
states  may  hinder  the  adoption  of  amendments ;  so  that  we  may 
fairly  and  justly  conclude  that  one  twentieth  part  of  the  American 
people  may  prevent  the  removal  of  the  most  grievous  inconven- 
ience and  oppression,  by  refusing  to  accede  to  amendments.  A 
trifling  minority  may  reject  the  most  salutary  amendments.  Is 
this  an  easy  mode  of  securing  the  public  liberty }  It  is,  sir,  a  most 
fearful  situation  when  the  most  contemptible  minority  can  prevent 
the  alteration  of  the  most  oppressive  government ;  for  it  may,  in  many 
respects,  prove  to  be  such.    Is  this  the  spirit  of  republicanism  J 


174  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

II.    THE  GENIUS  OF  DEMOCRACY 

Henry  fears  that  a  minority  will  "  prevent  the  good  of  the  majority,"  and 
that  a  standing  army  will  execute  the  "  commands  of  tyranny,"  and  create 
an  empire  instead  of  a  democracy. 

What,  sir,  is  the  genius  of  democracy  ?  Let  me  read  that  clause 
of  the  Bill  of  Rights  of  Virginia  which  relates  to  this  :  "  That  go.v- 
ernment  is,  or  ought  to  be,  instituted  for  the  common  benefit,  pro- 
tection, and  security  of  the  people,  nation,  or  the  community.  Of 
all  the  various  modes  and  forms  of  government,  that  is  best  which 
is  capable  of  producing  the  greatest  degree  of  happiness  and  safety, 
and  is  most  effectually  secured  against  the  danger  of  maladminis- 
tration ;  and  that  whenever  any  government  shall  be  found  inade- 
quate, or  contrary  to  those  purposes,  a  majority  of  the  community 
hath  an  indubitable,  unalienable,  and  indefeasible  right  to  reform, 
alter,  or  abolish  it  in  such  manner  as  shall  be  judged  most  con- 
ducive to  the  public  weal." 

This,  sir,  is  the  language  of  democracy  —  that  a  majority  of  the 
community  have  a  right  to  alter  government  when  found  to  be  op- 
pressive. But  how  different  is  the  genius  of  your  new  Constitution 
from  this !  How  different  from  the  sentiments  of  freemen,  that  a 
contemptible  minority  can  prevent  the  good  of  the  majority!  If, 
then,  gentlemen  standing  on  this  ground  are  come  to  that  point, 
that  they  are  willing  to  bind  themselves  and  their  posterity  to  be 
oppressed,  I  am  amazed  and  inexpressibly  astonished.  If  this  be 
the  opinion  of  the  majority  I  must  submit ;  but  to  me,  sir,  it  ap- 
pears perilous  and  destructive.  I  cannot  help  thinking  so.  If,  sir, 
amendments  are  left  to  the  twentieth  or  tenth  part  of  the  people 
of  America,  your  liberty  is  gone  forever. 

We  have  heard  that  there  is  a  great  deal  of  bribery  practiced  in 
the  House  of  Commons  in  England,  and  that  many  of  the  members 
raise  themselves  to  preferments  by  selling  the  rights  of  the  whole 
of  the  people.  But,  sir,  the  tenth  part  of  that  body  cannot  continue 
oppressions  on  the  rest  of  the  people.  English  liberty  is,  in  this 
case,  on  a  firmer  foundation  than  American  liberty.    It  will  be 


PATRICK  HENRY  1 75 

easily  contrived  to  procure  the  opposition  of  one  tenth  of  the  people 
to  any  alteration,  however  judicious.  The  honorable  gentleman  who 
presides  told  us  that,  to  prevent  abuses  in  our  government,  we  will 
assemble  in  convention,  recall  our  delegated  powers,  and  punish 
our  servants  for  abusing  the  trust  reposed  in  them.  Oh,  sir,  we 
should  have  fine  times  indeed,  if,  to  punish  tyrants,  it  were  only 
sufficient  to  assemble  the  people  !  Your  arms,  wherewith  you  could 
defend  yourselves,  are  gone ;  and  you  have  no  longer  an  aristo- 
cratical,  no  longer  a  democratical  spirit.  Did  you  ever  read  of  any 
revolution  in  a  nation,  brought  about  by  punishment  of  those  in 
power,  inflicted  by  those  who  had  no  power  at  all  ?  You  read  of  a 
riot  act  in  a  country  which  is  called  one  of  the  freest  in  the  world, 
where  a  few  neighbors  cannot  assemble  without  the  risk  of  being 
shot  by  a  hired  soldiery,  the  engines  of  despotism.  We  may  see 
such  an  act  in  America. 

A  standing  army  we  shall  have,  also,  to  execute  the  execrable 
commands  of  tyranny ;  and  how  are  you  to  punish  them  ?  Will 
you  order  them  to  be  punished  ?  Who  shall  obey  these  orders  ? 
Will  your  mace  bearer  be  a  match  for  a  disciplined  regiment  ?  In 
what  situation  aje  we  to  be  ?  The  clause  before  you  gives  a  power 
of  direct  taxation,  unbounded  and  unlimited ;  exclusive  power  of 
legislation  in  all  cases  whatsoever  for  ten  miles  square,  and  over 
all  places  purchased  for  the  erection  of  forts,  magazines,  arsenals, 
dockyards,  etc.  What  resistance  could  be  made  ?  The  attempt 
would  be  madness.  You  will  find  all  the  strength  of  this  country 
in  the  hands  of  your  enemies ;  their  garrisons  will  naturally  be  the 
strongest  places  in  the  country.  Your  militia  is  given  up  to  Con- 
gress, also,  in  another  part  of  this  plan.  They  will  therefore  act 
as  they  think  proper ;  all  power  will  be  in  their  possession.  You 
cannot  force  them  to  receive  their  punishment.  Of  what  service 
would  militia  be  to  you,  when,  most  probably,  you  will  not  have  a 
single  musket  in  the  state  ?  As  arms  are  to  be  provided  by  Con- 
gress they  may  or  may  not  furnish  them.  If  they  neglect  or  refuse 
to  arm  or  discipline  our  militia,  they  will  be  useless.  The  states  can 
do  neither,  this  power  being  exclusively  given  to  Congress.    The 


176  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

power  of  appointing  officers  over  men  not  disciplined  or  armed  is 
ridiculous ;  so  that  this  pretended  little  remains  of  power  left  to 
the  states  may,  at  the  pleasure  of  Congress,  be  rendered  nugatory. 
Our  situation  will  be  deplorable  indeed ;  nor  can  we  ever  expect 
to  get  this  government  amended,  since  I  have  already  shown  that 
a  very  small  minority  may  prevent  it,  and  that  small  minority  in- 
terested in  the  continuance  of  the  oppression*  Will  the  oppressor 
let  go  the  oppressed  ?  Was  there  ever  an  instance  ?  Can  the  annals 
of  mankind  exhibit  one  single  example  where  rulers  overcharged 
with  power  willingly  let  go  the  oppressed,  though  solicited  and  re- 
quested most  earnestly  ?  The  application  for  amendments  will 
therefore  be  f ruidess.  Sometimes  the  oppressed  have  got  loose  by 
one  of  those  bloody  struggles  that  desolate  a  country ;  but  a  will- 
ing relinquishment  of  power  is  one  of  those  things  which  human 
nature  never  was,  nor  ever  will  be,  capable  of. 

"  When  the  American  spirit  was  in  its  youth,  the  language  of 
America  was  different.  Liberty  was  then,  sir,  the  primary  object. 
We  are  descended  from  a  people  whose  government  was  founded 
on  liberty ;  our  glorious  forefathers  of  Great  Britain  made  liberty 
the  foundation  of  everything.  That  country  is  become  a  great, 
mighty,  splendid  nation;  not  because  their  government  is  strong 
and  energetic,  but,  sir,  because  liberty  is  its  direct  end  and  founda- 
tion. We  drew  the  spirit  of  liberty  from  our  British  ancestors ;  by 
that  spirit  we  have  triumphed  over  every  difficulty.  But  now,  sir, 
the  American  spirit,  assisted  by  the  ropes  and  chains  of  consolida- 
tion, is  about  to  convert  this  country  into  a  powerful  and  mighty 
empire.  If  you  make  the  citizens  of  this  country  agree  to  become 
the  subjects  of  one  great  consolidated  empire  of  America,  your 
government  will  not  have  sufficient  energy  to  keep  them  together. 
Such  a  government  is  incompatible  with  the  genius  of  republican- 
ism. There  will  be  no  checks,  no  real  balances  in  this  government. 
What  can  avail  your  specious,  imaginary  balances,  your  rope-danc- 
ing, chain-ratding,  ridiculous  ideal  checks  and  contrivances  ?  But, 
sir,  we  are  not  feared  by  foreigners ;  we  do  not  make  nations 
tremble.    Would    this  constitute   happiness  or  secure  liberty.^    I 


PATRICK  HENRY  1 7/ 

trust,  sir,  our  political  hemisphere  will  ever  direct  their  operations 
to  the  security  of  those  objects. 

'Consider  our  situation,  sir.  Go  to  the  poor  man  and  ask  him 
what  he  does.  He  will  inform  you  that  he  enjoys  the  fruits  of  his 
labor,  under  his  own  fig  tree,  with  his  wife  and  children  around 
him,  in  peace  and  security.  Go  to  every  other  member  of  society ; 
you  will  find  the  same  tranquil  ease  and  content ;  you  will  find 
no  alarms  or  disturbances.  Why,  then,  tell  us  of  danger,  to  terrify 
us  into  an  adoption  of  this  new  form  of  government  ?  And  yet  who 
knows  the  dangers  that  this  new  system  may  produce  ?  They  are 
put  out  of  the  sight  of  the  common  people,  who  cannot  foresee  latent 
consequences.  I  dread  the  operation  of  it  on  the  middle  and  lower 
classes  of  people  ;  it  is  for  them  I  fear  the  adoption  of  this  system. 


III.    THE  PRESIDENT  A  KING 

Henry  sees  great  jeopardy  in  the  Constitution,  because  the  President,  as 
commander  in  chief  of  the  army,  may  easily  become  king  and  "  render 
himself  absolute." 

I  fear  I  tire  the  patience  of  the  committee ;  but  I  beg  to  be  in- 
dulged with  a  few  more  observations.  When  I  thus  profess  my- 
self an  advocate  for  the  liberty  of  the  people,  I  shall  be  told  I  am 
a  designing  man,  that  I  am  to  be  a  demagogue.  But,  sir,  conscious 
rectitude  outweighs  those  things  with  me.  I  see  great  jeopardy  in 
this  new  government.  I  see  none  from  our  present  one.  I  hope 
some  gentleman  or  other  will  bring  forth  in  full  array  those  dangers, 
if  there  be  any,  that  we  may  see  and  touch  them. 

This  Constitution  is  said  to  have  beautiful  features  ;  but  when  I 
come  to  examine  these  features,  sir,  they  appear  to  me  to  be  hor- 
ribly frightful.  Among  other  deformities  it  has  an  awful  squinting ; 
it  squints  toward  monarchy ;  and  does  not  this  raise  indignation  in 
the  breast  of  every  true  American  ? 

Your  President  may  easily  become  king.  Your  Senate  is  so  im- 
perfectly constructed  that  your  dearest  rights  may  be  sacrificed  by 
what  may  be  a  small  minority,  and  a  very  small  minority  may 


178  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

continue  forever  unchangeably  this  government,  although  horri- 
bly defective.  Where  are  your  checks  in  this  government  ?  Your 
strongholds  will  be  in  the  hands  of  your  enemies.  It  is  on  a  sup- 
position that  your  American  governors  shall  be  honest  that  all  the 
good  qualities  of  this  government  are  founded;  but  its  defective 
and  imperfect  construction  puts  it  in  their  power  to  perpetrate  the 
worst  of  mischiefs,  should  they  be  bad  men ;  and,  sir,  would  not 
all  the  world,  from  the  eastern  to  the  western  hemisphere,  blame 
our  distracted  folly  in  resting  our  rights  upon  the  contingency  of 
our  rulers  being  good  or  bad  ?  Show  me  that  age  and  country 
where  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  people  were  placed  on  the 
sole  chance  of  their  rulers  being  good  men,  without  a  consequent 
loss  of  liberty  !  I  say  that  the  loss  of  that  dearest  privilege  has  ever 
followed,  with  absolute  certainty,  every  such  mad  attempt. 

If  your  American  chief  be  a  man  of  ambition  and  abilities,  how 
easy  it  is  for  him  to  render  himself  absolute !  The  army  is  in  his 
hands,  and  if  he  be  a  man  of  address  it  will  be  attached  to  him, 
and  it  will  be  the  subject  of  long  meditation  with  him  to  seize  the 
first  auspicious  moment  to  accomplish  his  design.  And,  sir,  will 
the  American  spirit  solely  relieve  you  when  this  happens  ?  I  would 
rather  —  infinitely  —  and  I  am  sure  most  of  this  convention  are 
of  the  same  opinion  —  have  a  king,  lords,  and  commons,  than  a 
government  so  replete  with  such  insupportable  evils.  If  we  make 
a  king,  we  may  prescribe  the  rules  by  which  he  shall  rule  his  peo- 
ple, and  interpose  such  checks  as  shall  prevent  him  from  infringing 
them ;  but  the  President,  in  the  field  at  the  head  of  his  army,  can 
prescribe  the  terms  on  which  he  shall  reign  master,  so  far  that  it 
will  puzzle  any  American  ever  to  get  his  neck  from  under  the  gall- 
ing yoke.  I  cannot  with  patience  think  of  this  idea.  If  ever  he 
violates  the  laws,  one  of  two  things  will  happen :  he  will  come  at 
the  head  of  his  array,  to  carry  everything  before  him ;  or  he  will 
give  bail,  or  do  what  Mr.  Chief  Justice  will  order  him.  If  he  be 
guilty,  will  not  the  recollection  of  his  crimes  teach  him  to  make  one 
bold  push  for  the  American  throne  ?  Will  not  the  immense  differ- 
ence between  being  master  of  everything,  and  being  ignominiously 


PATRICK  HENRY  1 79 

tried  and  punished,  powerfully  excite  him  to  make  this  bold  push  ? 
But,  sir,  where  is  the  existing  force  to  punish  him  ?  Can  he  not 
at  the  head  of  his  army  beat  down  every  opposition  ?  Away  with 
your  President !  We  shall  have  a  king  !  The  army  will  salute  him 
monarch !  Your  militia  will  leave  you  and  assist  in  making  him 
king,  and  fight  against  you !  Arid  what  have  you  to  oppose  this 
force  ?  What  will  become  of  you  and  your  rights  ?  Will  not  absolute 
despotism  ensue  ? 

What  can  be  more  defective  than  the  clause  concerning  the 
elections  ?  The  control  given  to  Congress  over  the  time,  place, 
and  manner  of  holding  elections  will  totally  destroy  the  end  of  suf- 
frage. The  elections  may  be  held  at  one  place,  and  the  most  in- 
convenient in  the  state ;  or  they  may  be  at  remote  distances  from 
those  who  have  a  right  of  suffrage.  Hence  nine  out  of  ten  must 
either  not  vote  at  all  or  vote  for  strangers ;  for  the  most  influential 
characters  will  be  applied  to,  to  know  who  are  the  most  proper  to 
be  chosen.  I  repeat,  that  the  control  of  Congress  over  the  manner 
of  electing  well  warrants  this  idea.  The  natural  consequence  will 
be  that  this  democratic  branch  will  possess  none  of  the  public 
confidence ;  the  people  will  be  prejudiced  against  representatives 
chosen  in  such  an  injudicious  manner.  The  proceedings  in  the 
northern  conclave  will  be  hidden  from  the  yeomanry  of  this  coun- 
try. We  are  told  that  the  yeas  and  nays  shall  be  taken,  and  entered 
on  the  journals.  This,  sir,  will  avail  nothing.  It  may  be  locked  up 
in  their  chests,  and  concealed  forever  from  the  people ;  for  they 
are  not  to  publish  what  parts  they  think  require  secrecy.  They 
may  think,  and  will  think,  the  whole  requires  it. 

Another  beautiful  feature  of  this  Constitution  is  the  publication 
from  time  to  time  of  the  receipts  and  expenditures  of  the  public 
money.  This  expression,  from  time  to  time,  is  very  indefinite  and 
indeterminate  ;  it  may  extend  to  a  century.  Grant  that  any  of  them 
are  wicked  ;  they  may  squander  the  public  money  so  as  to  ruin  you, 
and  yet  this  expression  will  give  you  no  redress.  I  say  they  may 
ruin  you  ;  for  where  is  the  responsibility  ?  The  yeas  and  nays  will 
show  you  nothing,  unless  they  be  fools  as  well  as  knaves  ;  for,  after 


l8o  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

having  wickedly  trampled  on  the  rights  of  the  people,  they  would 
act  like  fools  indeed,  were  they  to  publish  and  divulge  their  iniquity 
when  they  have  it  equally  in  their  power  to  suppress  and  conceal 
it.  Where  is  the  responsibility  —  that  leading  principle  in  the  British 
government  ?  In  that  government  a  punishment  certain  and  inevi- 
table is  provided  ;  but  in  this  there  is  no  real,  actual  punishment 
for  the  grossest  maladministration.  They  may  go  without  punish- 
ment, though  they  commit  the  most  outrageous  violation  on  our 
immunities.  That  paper  may  tell  me  they  will  be  punished.  I  ask, 
By  what  law  ?  They  must  make  the  law,  for  there  is  no  existing 
law  to  do  it.  What !  will  they  make  a  law  to  punish  themselves  ? 
This,  sir,  is  my  great  objection  to  the  Constitution,  that  there  is 
no  true  responsibility,  and  that  the  preservation  of  our  liberty 
depends  on  the  single  chance  of  men  being  virtuous  enough  to 
make  laws  to  punish  themselves. 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 


Alexander  Hamilton  (i 757-1804),  the  great  advocate, 
Federalist,  and  statesman,  was  of  Scotch-Huguenot  parentage 
and  was  a  native  of  the  island  of  Nevis,  of  the  West  Indies. 
His  early  schooling,  which 
was  to  play  so  great  a  part 
in  the  life  of  one  of  the  great 
leaders  of  the  Revolution,  was 
begun  at  Santa  Cruz,  where 
he  learned  to  write  and  speak 
the  French  language  fluently. 
Later  he  came  under  the  tute- 
lage of  Dr.  Knox,  a  Presbyte- 
rian clerg\'man,  under  whose 
skillful  training  he  advanced 
rapidly  in  his  studies.  During 
his  employment  in  a  count- 
inghouse  he  pursued  his  stud- 
ies still  further  in  preparation 
for  college.  It  was  finally  de- 
cided that  he  should  come 
to  America  to  complete  his  education.  Not  yet  sufficiently 
advanced  to  enter  college,  he  was  placed  in  a  preparatory 
school  at  Elizabethtown,  New  Jersey.  From  this  time  on, 
until  he  finished  his  college  course,  he  had  the  best  educa- 
tional advantages  offered  to  young  men  of  that  day.  When 
prepared  for  college  he  applied  for  admission  to  Princeton, 
but  on  learning  that  he  could  not  progress  faster  than  his 
class  he  withdrew  his  application  and  entered  King's  College, 

181 


l82  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

now  Columbia  University,  where  he  was  assured  he  could 
advance  as  rapidly  as  the  preparation  of  his  lessons  would 
warrant.  With  the  aid  of  private  tutors  he  pushed  through 
college  rapidly.  It  was  here  that  his  genius  and  energy 
showed  to  best  advantage  ;  here  that  he  found  the  environ- 
ment best  suited  to  his  taste.  Early  in  his  college  course  he 
began  the  writing  of  articles  on  the  state  of  affairs  between 
England  and  the  colonies.  At  first  he  was  inclined  to  take 
the  part  of  England,  but  gradually  he  changed  to  the  side 
of  the  colonists,  and  became  one  of  the  most  active  of  the 
patriots.  These  articles,  "which  were  published  without  his 
name,  were  so  fulhof  point  that  they  were  attributed  to  mature 
statesmen.  In  them  he  proclaimed  great  principles  and  set 
forth  wise  policies.  When  their  authorship  became  known  it 
gave  him  wide  and  immediate  reputation.  It  was  this  propen- 
sity for  writing,  this  great  desire  to  express  his  thought,  that 
developed  in  him  clear  and  forceful  expression,  so  much 
needed,  and  later  so  well  exemplified,  in  his  legislative 
speeches.  It  is  this  early  systematic  development  of  his 
powers  of  rhetorical  expression  that  made  him,  according  to 
one  of  his  biographers,  "  the  most  sagacious  and  laborious  of 
our  Revolutionary  orators." 

But  his  power  of  vigorous  expression  was  not  confined  to 
pamphlets.  He  became  a  member  of  a  debating  society  at 
King's  College  and  took  active  part  in  all  its  exercises.  Even 
while  yet  a  college  student  he  began  to  take  part  in  public 
discussions.  His  first  political  speech  before  a  popular  assem- 
bly was  at  a  meeting  in  the  fields  in  the  suburbs  of  New 
York.  He  was  then  but  seventeen  years  of  age.  Dissatisfied 
with  the  course  of  "the  discussion,  and  imbued  with  the  feeling 
that  he  could  supply  what  was  wanting,  he  expressed  a  desire 
to  speak,  and  his  fellows  pushed  him  forward  to  the  platform. 
The  people  were  amazed  at  the  audacity  of  this  stripling. 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  1 83 

Embarrassed  and  hesitating  for  a  moment,  he  soon  found 
words  to  express  his  thought,  and  in  a  httle  while  he  forgot 
himself  in  the  heat  of  his  words.  "  He  had  the  eloquence  of 
sound  reason,  backed  by  a  strong  and  passionate  nature.  As 
he  poured  out  with  all  his  young  fervor  thoughts  long  pent 
up  in  his  breast,  we  can  well  believe  that  the  crowd  were 
deeply  stirred  by  the  oratory  of  one  who  spoke  so  well, 
although  he  was  a  stranger  and  a  mere  boy." 

This  was  an  oratorical  debut  quite  equal  to  that  of  Pitt  the 
Younger,  or,  seventy  years  later,  of  Castelar,  the  great  tribune 
of  Spain.  The  multitude  were  astonished  at  the  maturity  of 
his  mind  and  language.  His  mental  powers  were  fresh  and 
fertile.  He  not  only  wrote  well  but  spoke  well,  intellectual 
accomplishments  of  the  highest  order,  and  in  him  these  two 
excellences  were  combined  in  a  striking  manner. 

His  powers  of  oratory  were  further  developed  in  the  many 
speeches  he  made  at  public  meetings  just  preceding  the  out- 
break of  the  Revolution,  and  during  the  formative  period  of 
the  Constitution,  in  which  he  was  constantly  writing  and 
speaking.  Many  were  the  conventions  and  legislative  assem- 
blies in  which  he  took  an  active  and  important  part.  Then 
his  study  of  the  law,  his  admission  to  the  bar,  his  practice  of 
the  profession,  his  many  forensic  efforts,  and  his  intense  and 
incessant  application  made  him  not  only  expert  as  a  public 
speaker  but  a  leader  in  his  profession. 

Personally  Hamilton  was  unusually  attractive.  Though 
small  of  stature  and  thin,  he  was  erect  and  dignified  in  bearing, 
handsome,  and  impressive.  He  had  a  florid  complexion,  dark 
deep-set  eyes,  a  firm,  strong  jaw,  and  a  well-shaped  head. 
His  countenance  wore  a  severe  and  thoughtful  look  in  repose, 
but  was  lighted  up  and  very  expressive  when  he  began  to 
speak.  He  was  self-restrained  and  brave,  a  man  of  strong 
will,  great  courage,  and  self-confidence.    Open-hearted  and 


1 84  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

generous  of  nature,  full  of  high  spirits  and  geniality,  he  was 
very  attractive  and  much  beloved  in  private  life.  These  quali- 
ties, coupled  with  his  versatile  and  original  mind,  his  keen 
and  powerful  intellect,  his  sagacity  and  foresight,  commended 
themselves  to  Washington,  and  at  twenty  years  of  age  Ham- 
ilton became  a  great  favorite  with  the  commanding  general 
and  was  made  his  secretary  and  chief  adviser. 

Senator  Lodge,  in  speaking  of  Hamilton's  personality,  says: 
"  The  man  was  impressive.  Inches  of  stature  and  of  girth 
were  lacking,  but  he  was  none  the  less  full  of  dignity.  In  this, 
of  course,  his  looks  helped  him.  .  .  .  The  characteristics  of 
the  spare,  clean-cut  features  are  penetration  and  force.  There 
was  a  piercing  look  about  the  face,  even  in  repose,  and  when 
Hamilton  was  moved  a  fire  came  into  his  eyes  which  we  are 
told  had  a  marvelous  effect.  But  it  was  the  soul  which  shone 
through  his  eyes,  and  animated  his  mobile  countenance,  that 
made  him  so  effective  in  speech." 

^  His  style  of  oratory  was  perfected  by  much  writing  in  his 
youth.  While  some  of  his  earlier  speeches  were  written  in 
full,  he  did  not  charge  his  mind  with  the  exact  words  he  had 
prepared.  True,  his  memory  was  so  alert  that,  once  having 
written  the  words,  he  could  recall  them  without  apparent  effort. 
He  wrote  so  much  about  the  subjects  he  discussed  that  his 
most  expressive  phrases  formed  the  basis  of  his  extem- 
pore discourse,  so  that  his  thought  seemed  but  to  overflow 
like  the  gushing  of  a  great  fountain.  His  mind  was  logical. 
His  knowledge  naturally  fell  into  good  form.  Wonderful 
clearness,  directness,  and  force  characterized  his  utterance. 
Argument  was  congenial  to  him.  Few  possessed  such  capacity 
for  discussion.  He  dealt  little  in  figures  of  speech.  There 
were  no  such  excursions  of  fancy  in  his  speeches  as  are 
found  in  Burke's.  He  was  master  of  a  plain,  forcible,  argu- 
mentative style.    His  essays  in  The  Federalist,  according  to 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  185 

Senator  Lodge,  "exhibit  a  wide  range  of  information;  their 
reasoning  is  strong,  their  style  is  simple,  forcible,  and  clear; 
they  were  admirably  adapted  to  their  purpose,  and  above  all 
they  have  endured,  for  they  were  fresh  and  original  con- 
tributions to  human  knowledge  and  to  the  best  thought  of 
the  time."  ^ 

From  what  we  have  said  it  is  not  to  be  inferred  that  Ham- 
ilton was  devoid  of  feeling.  On  the  contrary,  he  was  full  of 
feeling.  The  intense  earnestness  with  which  he  set  forth  his 
arguments  does  not  appear  in  the  written  speech.  The  per- 
sonality of  the  man,  as  seen  and  felt  in  the  delivery  of  his 
words,  forms  the  basis  of  his  remarkable  success. 

^The  distinguishing  quality  of  his  delivery  was  directness  ; 
directness  in  the  fascination  of  his  eye  ;  directness  in  the.  com- 
municative inflections  of  his  voice  ;  directness  which  seeks 
out  and  maintains  contact  with  his  audience.  His  voice  was 
full  and  melodious,  his  manner  courteous,  his  gesture  graceful 
and  appropriate,  and  his  bearing  dignified  and  commanding. 
There  was  a  persuasive  enthusiasm  that  pervaded  his  speeches, 
a  power  and  pathos  that  moved  men  to  vote  for  his  measures. 
Delegates  to  conventions,  elected  to  vote  against  him,  were 
won  in  open  debate.  One  of  the  great  triumphs  in  the  "history* 
of  American  eloquence  was  Hamilton's  victory  in  the  New 
York  convention  at  Poughkeepsie  over  the  opponents  of  the 
Constitution.  When  this  new  Constitution,  formulated  in  the 
national  convention  at  Philadelphia,  was  submitted  to  the  sev- 
eral commonwealths  for  ratification,  there  was  a  strong  organ- 
ization in  several  of  the  states  against  its  adoption.  New  York 
was  the  pivotal  state.  The  opposition  there,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Governor  Clinton  and  Melancthon  Smith,  was  stronger 
than  in  any  other  state.  When  the  forces  opposed  each  other 
in  the  state  convention,  it  was  found  that  forty-six  of  the 
members  were  opposed  to  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution 


l86  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

and  only  nineteen  in  favor  of  it.  Hamilton,  in  writing  to 
a  friend,  declared  that  "two  thirds  of  the  convention  and 
four  sevenths  of  the  people  are  against  us."  At  the  head  of 
this  seemingly  hopeless  minority  Hamilton  began  his  most 
notable  constructive  work.  He  wrote  for  The  Federalist,  he 
talked  with  individual  members  of  the  opposition,  he  took 
every  opportunity  to  make  clear  to  less  studious  minds  the 
benefits  to  be  derived  from  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution 
and  the  cementing  of  the  Union.  He  refrained  from  reaching 
an  early  vote  and  took  little  part  in  the  discussion  of  small 
details.  According  to  Senator  Lodge,  "  he  wisely  decided  to 
concentrate  all  his  force  in  debate  in  one  speech.  For  this 
purpose  he  selected  the  general  theme  of  a  new  government. 
Completely  master  of  his  subject,  filled  with  a  deep  conviction 
of  the  solemnity  of  the  occasion,  he  delivered  a  speech  occupy- 
ing five  or  six  hours,  embodying  all  the  accumulated  reflections 
of  years.  .  .  .  If  we  try  Hamilton's  speeches  by  the  severest 
tests,  by  the  conversion  he  wrought,  by  the  sustained  power, 
the  readiness,  fertility,  and  resource  he  displayed,  and,  above 
all,  the  results,  this  series  of  speeches  in  the  New  York  con- 
vention deserves  to  rank  with  the  highest  triumphs  of  modern 
parliamentary  oratory.  .  .  .  The  opponents  of  the  Constitution 
assailed  him  for  using  such  consummate  art  in  oratory  that 
he  blinded,  hoodwinked,  and  misled  his  hearers,  preventing 
their  voting  in  accordance  with  their  real  convictions,  so 
bewitched  were  they  by  the  magic  of  his  words.  No  greater 
compliment  could  have  been  paid  to  him  ;  and  when  his 
bitterest  enemies  ranked  his  eloquence  so  highly,  posterity 
may  fitly  adjudge  its  place  to  be  among  the  first." 

It  is  a  lamentable  fact  that  the  duties  of  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  under  the  government  prevented  Hamilton  from 
ever  afterwards  having  legislative  opportunities  commensurate 
with  his  oratorical  talents  and  attainments. 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  1 8/ 

Hamilton's  influence  as  an  advocate  was  equally  supreme. 
Asa  lawyer  he  deserves  to  rank  with  Marshall  and  Webster. 
On  this  point  Lodge  says :  ''His  power  of  statement  and  clear 
cogent  reasoning  were  admirably  adapted  for  arguments  to 
the  court  on  points  of  law  and  equity,  and  in  this  field  he 
shone  from  the  outset."  Judge  Spencer,  before  whom  both 
Hamilton  and  Webster  tried  cases,  says :  "In  power  of 
reasoning  Hamilton  was  the  equal  of  Webster,  and  more 
than  this  can  be  said  of  no  man.  In  creative  power  Hamilton 
was  infinitely  Webster's  superior.  ...  He,  more  than  any 
other  man,  did  the  thinking  of  the  time."  And  Guizot,  the 
great  historian,  adds  this  testimony  :  "  There  is  not  in  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  an  element  of  order,  of 
force,  or  of  duration,  which  he  has  not  powerfully  contributed 
to  introduce  into  it  and  caused  to  predominate." 

Careful  to  select  law  cases  the  justice  of  which  he  believed 
in,  it  was  almost  certain  that  Hamilton  would  get  the  verdict. 
Men  believed  that  if  he  took  a  case,  that  judge  and  jury 
alike  would  agree  with  him  ;  that  his  force  of  will  and  intel- 
lect would  compel  decisions  in  his  favor.  Young  lawyers  of 
the  present  time  might  well  follow  this  example.  ''As  men 
listened  to  him,  they  felt  profoundly  the  mastery  of  the  strong 
nature,  the  imperious  will,  and  the  passionate  energy  which 
gave  such  force  to  his  pathos,  to  his  invective,  and  to  the 
even  flow  of  clear  telling  argument." 

.^  Hamilton  was  a  man  of  unblemished  character.  His  motives 
y  were  pure  and  disinterested.  Truth  and  honor  were  his  motto. 
He  entertained  only  the  loftiest  sentiments  of  patriotism.  He 
rose  above  the  influence  of  party  and  became  the  philosopher, 
the  prophet  of  his  day.  He  kept  "  steadily  in  view  the  pros- 
perity and  honor  of  the  whole  country,"  and  constantly  held 
that  the  highest  duty  of  a  public  servant  is  to  advance  the 
interests  of  the  race. 


m 


l88  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

As  Statesman  and  orator  Hamilton's  place,  is  secure.  He 
will  be  honored  in  the  centuries  to  come  as  the  greatest  political 
philosopher  of  his  generation,  esteemed  by  his  opponents  for 
the  clearness  and  force  with  which  he  proposed  and  upheld 
the  policies  of  the  Constitution ;  for  his  letters  and  documents 
are  found  to  contain  the  leading  features  of  the  Constitution 
long  before  they  were  adopted.  As  a  statesman  John  Marshall 
ranked  Hamilton  next  to  Washington.  Henry  Cabot  Lodge 
says  :  "  It  is  given  to  few  men  to  impress  their  individuality 
indelibly  upon  the  history  of  a  great  nation.  .  .  .  Hamilton's 
versatility  was  extraordinary.  He  was  a  great  orator  and 
lawyer,  and  he  was  also  the  ablest  political  and  constitutional 
writer  of  his  day,  a  good  soldier,  and  possessed  of  a  wonderful 
capacity  for  organization  and  practical  administration.  .  .  . 
But  wherever  he  is  placed,  so  long  as  the  people  of  the 
United  States  form  one  nation,  the  name  of  Alexander  Ham- 
ilton will  be  held  in  high  and  lasting  honor,  and  even  in  the 
wreck  of  governments  that  great  intellect  would  still  command 
the  homage  of  men." 

"  As  a  public  speaker,"  says  Justice  Brewer,  "  Hamilton 
illustrates  the  power  of  intellect,  subtle  and  persistent,  flexible 
in  its  method,  comprehensive  in  its  scope,  far-reaching  in  its 
grasp  of  the  future.  He  was  not  an  orator  in  the  same  sense 
Patrick  Henry  was,  but  behind  every  word  he  has  left  on 
record  there  is  the  power  of  a  great  mind." 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  189 

COMPROMISES  OF  THE  CONSTITUTION 

This  is  one  of  a  number  of  speeches  dehvered  by  Hamilton  in  the 
New  York  State  Convention,  which  was  called  in  1788  for  the  purpose  of 
ratifying  the  federal  Constitution.  Forty-six  of  the  sixty-five  delegates  at 
first  opposed  ratification.  But  Hamilton,  in  a  series  of  speeches,  expounded 
the  Constitution  with  such  skill  that  when  the  vote  was  taken  there  was 
a  majority  of  three  for  ratification.  Judged  by  its  results,  this  may  be  con- 
sidered one  of  the  greatest  triumphs  in  the  history  of  oratory. 

L   COERCION   OF  DELINQUENT  STATES 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  honorable  member  who  spoke  yesterday 
went  into  an  explanation  of  a  variety  of  circumstances  to  prove 
the  expediency  of  a  change  in  our  national  government,  and  the 
necessity  of  a  firm  Union  ;  at  the  same  time  he  described  the  great 
advantages  which  this  state,  in  particular,  receives  from  the  Con- 
federacy, and  its  peculiar  weaknesses  when  abstracted  from  the 
Union.  In  doing  this,  he  advanced  a  variety  of  arguments  which 
deserve  serious  consideration.  Gentlemen  have  this  day  come 
forward  to  answer  him.  He  has  been  treated  as  having  wandered 
in  the  flowery  fields  of  fancy,  and  attempts  have  been  made  to 
take  off  from  the  minds  of  the  committee  that  sober  impression 
which  might  be  expected  from  his  arguments.  I  trust,  sir,  that 
observations  of  this  kind  are  not  thrown  out  to  cast  a  light  air  on 
this  important  subject,  or  to  give  any  personal  bias  on  the  great 
question  before  us.  I  will  not  agree  with  gentlemen  who  trifle 
with  the  weaknesses  of  our  country ;  and  suppose  that  they  are 
enumerated  to  answer  a  party  purpose,  and  to  terrify  with  sup- 
posed dangers.  No ;  I  believe  these  weaknesses  to  be  real,  and 
pregnant  with  destruction.  Yet,  however  weak  our  country  may  be, 
I  hope  we  shall  never  sacrifice  our  liberties.  If,  therefore,  on  a  full 
and  candid  discussion,  the  proposed  system  shall  appear  to  have 
that  tendency,  let  us  reject  it !  But  let  us  not  mistake  words  for 
things,  nor  accept  doubtful  surmises  as  the  evidence  of  truth.  Let 
us  consider  the  Constitution  calmly  and  dispassionately,  and  attend 
to  those  things  only  which  merit  consideration. 


190  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

No  arguments  drawn  from  embarrassment  or  inconvenience 
ought  to  prevail  upon  us  to  adopt  a  system  of  government  radi- 
cally bad ;  yet  it  is  proper  that  these  arguments,  among  others, 
should  be  brought  into  view.  In  doing  this,  yesterday,  it  was  nec- 
essary to  reflect  upon  our  situation ;  to  dwell  upon  the  imbecil- 
ity of  our  Union ;  and  to  consider  whether  we,  as  a  state,  could 
stand  alone. 

Although  I  am  persuaded  this  convention  will  be  resolved  to 
adopt  nothing  that  is  bad,  yet  I  think  every  prudent  man  will  con- 
sider the  merits  of  the  plan  in  connection  with  the  circumstances 
of  our  country  ;  and  that  a  rejection  of  the  Constitution  may  in- 
volve most  fatal  consequences.  I  make  these  remarks  to  show 
that  though  we  ought  not  to  be  actuated  by  unreasonable  fear, 
yet  we  ought  to  be  prudent. 

Sir,  it  appears  to  me  extraordinary  that  while  gentlemen  in  one 
breath  acknowledge  that  the  old  Confe'deration  requires  many 
material  amendments,  they  should,  in  the  next,  deny  that  its  de- 
fects have  been  the  cause  of  our  political  weakness  and  the  con- 
sequent calamities  of  our  country.  I  cannot  but  infer  from  this 
that  there  is  still  some  lurking  favorite  imagination  that  this  system, 
with  corrections,  might  become  a  safe  and  permanent  one.  It  is 
proper  that  we  should  examine  this  matter.  We  contend  that  the 
radical  vice  in  the  old  Confederation  is  that  the  laws  of  the  Union 
apply  only  to  the  states  in  their  corporate  capacity.  Has  not  every 
man  who  has  been  in  our  legislature  experienced  the  truth  of  this 
position  ?  It  is  inseparable  from  the  disposition  of  bodies  who 
have  a  constitutional  power  of  resistance,  to  examine  the  merits 
of  a  law.  This  has  ever  been  the  case  with  .the  federal  requisi- 
tions. In  this  examination,  not  being  furnished  with  those  lights 
which  directed  the  deliberations  of  the  general  government,  and 
incapable  of  embracing  the  general  interests  of  the  Union,  the 
states  have  almost  uniformly  weighed  the  requisitions  by  their 
own  local  interests ;  and  have  only  executed  them  so  far  as  an- 
swered their  particular  convenience  or  advantage.  Hence  there 
have  ever  been  thirteen  different  bodies  to  judge  of  the  measures 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  191 

of  Congress,  and  the  operations  of  government  have  been  dis- 
tracted by  their  taking  different  courses.  Those  which  were  to  be 
benefited,  have  complied  with  the  requisitions ;  others  have  totally 
disregarded  them.  Have  not  all  of  us  been  witnesses  to  the  un- 
happy embarrassments  which  resulted  from  these  proceedings  ? 
Even  during  the  late  war,  while  the  pressure  of  common  danger 
connected  strongly  the  bond  of  our  union,  and  excited  to  vigorous 
exertions,  we  have  felt  many  distressing  effects  of  the  impotent 
system.  How  have  we  seen  this  state,  though  most  exposed  to 
the  calamities  of  the  war,  complying,  in  an  unexampled  manner, 
with  the  federal  requisitions,  and  compelled  by  the  delinquency  of 
others  to  bear  most  unusual  burdens !  Of  this  truth  we  have  the 
most  solemn  evidence  on  our  records.  In  1779  and  1780,  when 
the  state,  from  the  ravages  of  war,  and  from  her  great  exertions 
to  resist  them,  became  weak,  distressed,  and  forlorn,  every  man 
avowed  the  principle  we  now  contend  for ;  that  our  misfortunes, 
in  a  great  degree,  proceeded  from  the  want  of  vigor  in  the  Con- 
tinental government.  These  were  our  sentiments  when  we  did 
not  speculate,  but  feel.  We  saw  our  weakness,  and  found  ourselves 
its  victims.  Let  us  reflect  that  this  may  again,  in  all  probability,  be 
our  situation.  This  is  a  weak  state,  and  its  relative  station  is  dan- 
gerous. Your  capital  is  accessible  by  land,  and  by  sea  is  exposed 
to  every  daring  invader ;  and  on  the  northwest  you  are  open  to 
the  inroads  of  a  powerful  foreign  nation.  Indeed  this  state,  from 
its  situation,  will,  in  time  of  war,  probably  be  the  theater  of  its 
operations. 

Gentlemen  have  said  that  the  noncompliance  of  the  states  has 
been  occasioned  by  their  sufferings.  This  may  in  part  be  true. 
But  has  this  state  been  delinquent  ?  Amidst  all  our  distresses  we 
have  fully  complied.  If  New  York  could  comply  wholly  with 
the  requisitions,  is  it  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  other  states 
could  in  part  comply }  Certainly  every  state  in  the  Union  might 
have  executed  them  in  some  degree.  But  New  Hampshire,  who 
has  not  suffered  at  all,  is  totally  delinquent.  North  Carolina  is 
totally  delinquent.    Many  others  have  contributed  in  a  very  small 


192  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

proportion ;  and  Pennsylvania  and  New  York  are  the  only  states 
which  have  perfectly  discharged  their  federal  duty. 

From  the  delinquency, of  those  states  which  have  suffered  little 
by  the  war,  we  naturally  conclude  that  they  have  made  no  efforts ; 
and  a  knowledge  of  human  nature  will  teach  us  that  their  ease 
and  security  have  been  a  principal  cause  of  their  want  of  exertion. 
While  danger  is  distant  its  impression  is  weak,  and  while  it  affects 
only  our  neighbors  we  have  few  motives  to  provide  against  it. 
Sir,  if  we  have  national  objects  to  pursue,  we  must  have  national 
revenues.  If  you  make  requisitions  and  they  are  not  complied 
with,  what  is  to  be  done  ?  It  has  been  well  observed  that  to 
coerce  the  state  is  one  of  the  maddest  projects  that  was  ever 
devised.  A  failure  of  compliance  will  never  be  confined  to  a 
single  state  ;  this  being  the  case,  can  we  suppose  it  wise  to  hazard 
a  civil  war?  Suppose  Massachusetts  or  any  large  state  should 
refuse,  and  Congress  should  attempt  to  compel  them ;  would  they 
not  have  influence  to  procure  assistance,  especially  from  those 
states  who  are  in  the  same  situation  as  themselves  ?  What  a  pic- 
ture does  this  idea  present  to  our  view  !  A  complying  state  at  war 
with  a  noncomplying  state ;  Congress  marching  the  troops  of  one 
state  into  the  bosom  of  another;  this  state  collecting  auxiliaries 
and  forming  perhaps  a  majority  against  its  federal  head.  Here  is 
a  nation  at  war  with  itself !  A  government  that  can  exist  only  by 
the  sword  !  Every  such  war  must  involve  the  innocent  with  the 
guilty.  This  single  consideration  should  be  sufficient  to  dispose 
every  peaceable  citizen  against  such  a  government. 

But  can  we  believe  that  one  state  will  ever  suffer  itself  to  be  used 
as  an  instrument  of  coercion  ?  It  is  a  dream.  It  is  impossible.  We 
are  brought  to  this  dilemma :  either  a  federal  standing  army  is  to 
enforce  the  requisitions,  or  the  federal  Treasury  is  left  without  sup- 
plies, and  the  government  without  support.  What  is  the  cure  for 
this  great  evil  ?  Nothing,  but  to  enable  the  national  laws  to  operate 
on  individuals  in  the  same  manner  as  those  of  the  states  do. 

What  shall  we  do  ?  Shall  we  take  the  old  Confederation  as  the 
basis  of  a  new  system  ?    Can  this  be  the  object  of  gendemen .? 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  1 93 

Certainly  not.  Will  any  man  who  entertains  a  wish  for  the  safety 
of  his  country  trust  the  sword  and  the  purse  with  a  single  As- 
sembly, organized  on  principles  so  defective?  Though  we  might 
give  to  such  a  government  certain  powers  with  safety,  yet,  to  give 
them  the  full  and  unlimited  powers  of  taxation  and  the  national 
forces,  would  be  to  establish  a  despotism,  the  definition  of  which 
is,  a  government  in  which  all  power  is  concentrated  in  a  single 
body.  To  take  the  old  Confederation  and  fashion  it  upon  these 
principles  would  be  establishing  a  power  which  would  destroy  the 
liberties  of  the  people.  These  considerations  show  clearly  that  a 
government  totally  different  must  be  instituted.  They  had  weight 
in  the  Convention  who  formed  the  new  system.  It  was  seen  that 
the  necessary  powers  were  too  great  to  be  trusted  to  a  single  body  ; 
they  therefore  formed  two  branches,  and  divided  the  powers,  that 
each  might  be  a  check  upon  the  other.  This  was  the  result  of  their 
wisdom ;  and  I  presume  that  every  reasonable  man  will  agree  to 
it.  The  more  this  subject  is  explained,  the  more  clear  and  con- 
vincing it  will  appear  to  every  member  of  this  body.  The  fun- 
damental principle  of  the  old  Confederation  is  defective.  We  must 
totally  eradicate  and  discard  this  principle  before  we  can  expect 
an  efficient  government. 

IL    REGULATION   OF  COMMERCE 

Hamilton  explains  why  it  was  necessary  to  compromise  with  the  South 
in  order  to  form  the  Union.  The  Southern  states  were  fearful  that  if  there 
were  no  restraints  on  navigation  the  South  would  be  affected  unfavorably  by 
the  raising  of  freight  rates,  for  the  reason  that  the  Northern  states  were 
essentially  navigating  states  while  the  Southern  states  were  non-navigating. 

In  order  that  the  committee  may  understand  clearly  the  princi- 
ples on  which  the  general  convention  acted,  I  think  it  necessary 
to  explain  some  preliminary  circumstances. 

Sir,  the  natural  situation  of  this  country  seems  to  divide  its  in- 
terests into  different  classes.  There  are  navigating  and  non-navigat- 
ing states.  The  Northern  are  properly  the  navigating  states ;  the 
Southern  appear  to  possess  neither  the  means  nor  the  spirit  of 


194  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

navigation.  This  difference  in  situation  naturally  produces  a  dis- 
similarity of  interests  and  views  respecting  foreign  commerce.  It 
was  the  interest  of  the  Northern  states  that  there  should  be  no 
restraints  on  their  navigation,  and  that  they  should  have  full  power, 
by  a  majority  in  Congress,  to  make  commercial  regulations  in  favor 
of  their  own,  and  in  restraint  of  the  navigation  of  foreigners.  The 
Southern  states  wished  to  impose  a  restraint  on  the  Northern  by 
requiring  that  two  thirds  in  Congress  should  be  requisite  to  pass 
an  act  in  regulation  of  commerce.  They  were  apprehensive  that  the 
restraints  of  a  navigation  law  should  discourage  foreigners,  and, 
by  obliging  them  to  employ  the  shipping  of  the  Northern  states, 
would  probably  enhance  their  freight.  This  being  the  case,  they 
insisted  strenuously  on  having  this  provision  ingrafted  in  the  Con- 
stitution ;  and  the  Northern  states  were  as  anxious  in  opposing  it. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  small  states,  seeing  themselves  embraced 
by  the  Confederation  upon  equal  terms,  wished  to  retain  the  ad- 
vantages which  they  already  possessed.  The  large  states,  on  the 
contrary,  thought  it  improper  that  Rhode  Island  and  Delaware 
should  enjoy  an  equal  suffrage  with  themselves.  From  these 
sources  a  delicate  and  difficult  contest  arose.  It  became  necessary, 
therefore,  to  compromise,  or  the  convention  must  have  dissolved 
without  effecting  anything.  Would  it  have  been  wise  and  prudent 
in  that  body,  in  this  critical  situation,  to  have  deserted  their  coun- 
try ?  No.  Every  man  who  hears  me  —  every  wise  man  in  the 
United  States  would  have  condemned  them.  The  convention  was 
obliged  to  appoint  a  committee  for  accommodation.  In  this  com- 
mittee the  arrangement  was  formed  as  it  now  stands,  and  their 
report  was  accepted.  It  was  a  delicate  point,  and  it  was  necessary 
that  all  parties  should  be  indulged.  Gentlemen  will  see  that  if 
there  had  not  been  unanimity,  nothing  could  have  been  done,  for 
the  convention  had  no  power  to  establish,  but  only  to  recommend 
a  government.  Any  other  system  would  have  been  impracticable. 
Let  a  convention  be  called  to-morrow.  Let  them  meet  twenty  times, 
—  nay,  twenty  thousand  times  ;  they  will  have  the  same  difficulties 
to  encounter,  the  same  clashing  interests  to  reconcile. 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  195 

But,  dismissing  these  reflections,  let  us  consider  how  far  the 
arrangement  is  in  itself  entitled  to  the  approbation  of  this  body. 
We  will  examine  it  upon  its  own  merits. 

The  first  thing  objected  to  is  that  clause  which  allows  a  repre- 
sentation for  three  fifths  of  the  negroes.  Much  has  been  said  of 
the  impropriety  of  representing  men  who  have  no  will  of  their 
own.  Whether  this  be  reasoning  or  declamation,  I  will  not  presume 
to  say.  It  is  the  unfortunate  situation  of  the  Southern  states  to 
have  a  great  part  of  their  population  as  well  as  property  in  blacks. 
The  regulation  complained  of  was  one  result  of  the  spirit  of  ac- 
commodation which  governed  the  convention ;  and  without  this 
indulgence  no  union  could  possibly  have  been  formed.  But,  sir,  con- 
sidering some  peculiar  advantages  which  we  derive  from  them, 
it  is  entirely  just  that  they  should  be  gratified.  The  Southern  states 
possess  certain  staples  —  tobacco,  rice,  indigo,  etc.  —  which  must 
be  capital  objects  in  treaties  of  commerce  with  foreign  nations ; 
and  the  advantage  which  they  necessarily  procure  in  these  treaties 
will  be  felt  throughout  all  the  states.  But  the  justice  of  this  plan 
will  appear  in  another  view.  The  best  writers  on  government  have 
held  that  representation  should  be  compounded  of  persons  and 
property.  This  rule  has  been  adopted,  as  far  as  it  could  be,  in  the 
constitution  of  New  York.  It  will,  however,  be  by  no  means  ad- 
mitted that  the  slaves  are  considered  altogether  as  property.  They 
are  men,  though  degraded  to  the  condition  of  slavery.  They  are 
persons  known  to  the  municipal  laws  of  the  states  which  they  in- 
habit, as  well  as  to  the  laws  of  nature.  But  representation  and 
taxation  go  together,  and  one  uniform  rule  ought  to  apply  to  both. 
Would  it  be  just  to  compute  these  slaves  in  the  assessment  of 
taxes,  and  discard  them  from  the  estimate  in  the  apportionment  of 
representatives  ?  Would  it  be  just  to  impose  a  singular  burden 
without  conferring  some  adequate  advantage  ? 

Another  circumstance  ought  to  be  considered.  The  rule  we  have 
been  speaking  of  is  a  general  rule,  and  applies  to  all  the  states. 
You  have  a  great  number  of  people  in  your  state  which  are  not 
represented  at  all,  and  have  no  voice  in  your  government.    These 


196  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

will  be  included  in  the  enumeration,  not  two  fifths  or  three  fifths, 
but  the  whole.  This  proves  that  the  advantages  of  the  plan  are 
not  confined  to  the  Southern  states,  but  extend  to  other  parts  of 
the  Union. 

I  now  proceed  to  consider  the  objection  with  regard  to  the  num- 
ber of  representatives  as  it  now  stands.  I  am  persuaded  that  the 
system,  in  this  respect,  is  on  a  better  footing  than  the  gentlemen 
imagine. 

It  has  been  asserted  that  it  will  be  in  the  power  of  Congress  to 
reduce  the  number.  I  acknowledge  that  there  are  no  direct  words 
of  prohibition.  But  I  contend  that  the  true  and  genuine  construc- 
tion of  the  clause  gives  Congress  no  power  whatever  to  reduce  the 
representation  below  the  number  as  it  now  stands.  Although  they 
may  limit,  they  can  never  diminish  the  number.  One  representa- 
tive for  every  thirty  thousand  inhabitants  is  fixed  as  the  standard 
of  increase  till,  by  the  natural  course  of  population,  it  shall  become 
necessary  to  limit  the  ratio.  Probably,  at  present,  were  this  stand- 
ard to  be  immediately  applied,  the  representation  would  consider- 
ably exceed  sixty-five.  In  three  years  it  would  exceed  a  hundred. 
If  I  understand  the  gentlemen,  they  contend  that  the  number  may 
be  enlarged,  or  may  not.  I  admit  that  this  is  in  the  discretion  of 
Congress,  and  I  submit  to  the  committee  whether  it  be  not  neces- 
sary and  proper.  Still  I  insist  that  an  immediate  limitation  is  not 
probable,  nor  was  it  in  the  contemplation  of  the  convention.  But, 
sir,  who  will  presume  to  say  to  what  precise  point  the  representa- 
tion ought  to  be  increased  ?  This  is  a  matter  of  opinion,  and  opin- 
ions are  vastly  different  upon  the  subject.  In  Massachusetts  the 
Assembly  consists  of  about  three  hundred  ;  in  South  Carolina,  of 
nearly  one  hundred ;  in  New  York,  there  are  sixty-five.  It  is  ob- 
served generally  that  the  number  ought  to  be  large.  I  confess  it 
is  difficult  for  rrie  to  say  what  number  may  be  said  to  be  suffi- 
ciently large.  On  one  hand,  it  ought  to  be  considered  that  a  small 
number  will  act  with  more  facility,  system,  and  decision.  On  the 
other,  that  a  large  one  may  enhance  the  difficulty  of  corruption. 
I'he  Congress  is  to  consist  at  first  of  ninety-one  members.    This, 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  197 

to  a  reasonable  man,  may  appear  to  be  as  near  the  proper  medium 
as  any  number  whatever ;  at  least,  for  the  present.  There  is  one 
source  of  increase,  also,  which  does  not  depend  upon  any  construc- 
tions of  the  Constitution;  it  is  the  creation  of  new  states.  Ver- 
mont and  Kentucky  will  probably  soon  become  independent.  New 
members  of  the  Union  will  also  be  formed  from  the  unsettled  tracts 
of  Western  territory.  These  must  be  represented,  and  will  all  con- 
tribute to  swell  the  federal  legislature.  If  the  whole  number  in  the 
United  States  be  at  present  three  millions,  as  is  commonly  sup- 
posed, according  to  the  ratio  of  one  for  thirty  thousand,  we  shall 
have,  on  the  first  census,  a  hundred  representatives.  In  ten  years 
thirty  more  will  be  added;  and  in  twenty-five  years  the  number 
will  double.  Then,  sir,  we  shall  have  two  hundred,  if  the  increase 
goes  on  in  the  same  proportion.  The  convention  of  Massachusetts, 
who  made  the  same  objection,  have  fixed  upon  this  number  as  the 
point  at  which  they  chose  to  limit  the  representation.  But  can  we 
pronounce  with  certainty  that  it  will  not  be  expedient  to  go  beyond 
this  number  ?  We  cannot.  Experience  alone  may  determine.  This 
problem  may  with  more  safety  be  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  legis- 
lature, as  it  will  be  the  interest  of  the  larger  and  increasing  states 
of  Massachusetts,  New  York,  and  Pennsylvania  to  augment  the 
representation.  Only  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  Delaware,  and 
Maryland  can  be  interested  in  limiting  it.  We  may,  therefore, 
safely  calculate  upon  a  growing  representation,  according  to  the 
advance  of  population  and  the  circumstances  of  the  country. 

The  state  governments  possess  inherent  advantages,  which  will 
ever  give  them  an  influence  and  ascendancy  over  the  national  gov- 
ernment, and  will  forever  preclude  the  possibility  of  federal  en- 
croachments. That  their  liberties,  indeed,  can  be  subverted  by  the 
federal  head  is  repugnant  to  every  rule  of  political  calculation.  Is 
not  this  arrangement  then,  sir,  a  most  wise  and  prudent  one  ?  Is 
not  the  present  representation  fully  adequate  to  our  present  exi- 
gencies, and  sufficient  to  answer  all  the  purposes  of  the  Union? 
I  am  persuaded  that  an  examination  of  the  objects  of  the  federal 
government  will  afford  a  conclusive  answer. 


198  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 


THE  UNITED  STATES  SENATE 

This  speech  is  another  of  the  series  deHvered  in  the  New  York  Con- 
vention of  1788.  Hamilton  urges  that  the  Senate  be  established  to  repre- 
sent the  states  and  act  as  a  check  upon  the  passions  of  a  popular  assembly 
and  regulate  its  fluctuations. 

I.  THE  SENATE  A  CHECK  UPON  THE  HOUSE 

We  all,  with  equal  sincerity,  profess  to  be  anxious  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  republican  government  on  a  safe  and  solid  basis. 
It  is  the  object  of  the  wishes  of  every  honest  man  in  the  United 
States,  and  I  presume  I  shall  not  be  disbelieved  when  I  declare 
that  it  is  an  object,  of  all  others,  the  nearest  and  most  dear  to  my 
own  heart.  The  means  of  accomplishing  this  great  purpose  become 
the  most  important  study  which  can  interest  mankind.  It  is  our 
duty  to  examine  all  those  means  with  peculiar  attention,  and  to 
choose  the  best  and  most  effectual.  It  is  our  duty  to  draw  from 
nature,  from  reason,  from  examples,  the  justest  principles  of  policy, 
and  to  pursue  and  apply  them  in  the  formation  of  our  government. 
We  should  contemplate  and  compare  the  systems  which,  in  the 
examination,  come  under  our  view ;  distinguish  with  a  careful  eye 
the  defects  and  excellencies  of  each,  and  discarding  the  former, 
incorporate  the  latter,  as  far  as  circumstances  will  admit,  into  our 
Constitution.  If  we  pursue  a  different  course  and  neglect  this 
duty,  we  shall  probably  disappoint  the  expectations  of  our  country 
and  of  the  world. 

In  the  commencement  of  a  revolution,  which  received  its  birth 
from  the  usurpations  of  tyranny,  nothing  was  more  natural  than 
that  the  public  mind  should  be  influenced  by  an  extreme  spirit  of 
jealousy.  To  resist  these  encroachments,  and  to  nourish  this  spirit, 
was  the  great  object  of  all  our  public  and  private  institutions.  The 
zeal  for  liberty  became  predominant  and  excessive.  In  forming 
our  Confederation  this  passion  alone  seemed  to  actuate  us,  and 
we  appear  to  have  had  no  other  view  than  to  secure  ourselves  from 
despotism.    The  object  certainly  was  a  valuable  one,  and  deserved 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  199 

our  utmost  attention.  But  there  is  another  object,  equally  important, 
and  which  our  enthusiasm  rendered  us  little  capable  of  regarding. 
I  mean  a  principle  of  strength  and  stability  in  the  organization  of 
our  government,  and  vigor  in  its  operations.  This  purpose  could 
never  be  accomplished  but  by  the  establishment  of  some  select 
body,  formed  peculiarly  on  this  principle.  There  are  few  positions^ 
more  demonstrable  than  that  there  should  be  in  every  republic 
some  permanent  body  to  correct  the  prejudices,  check  the  intem- 
perate passions,  and  regulate  the  fluctuations  of  a  popular  assembly. 
It  is  evident  that  a  body  instituted  for  these  purposes  must  be  so 
formed  as  to  exclude  as  much  as  possible  from  its  own  character 
those  infirmities  and  that  mutability  which  it  is  designed  to  remedy. 
It  is,  therefore,  necessary  that  it  should  be  small,  that  it  should  hold  X 
its  authority  during  a  considerable  period,  and  that  it  should  have 
such  an  independence  in  the  exercise  of  its  powers  as  will  divest  it, 
as  much  as  possible,  of  local  prejudices.  It  should  be  so  formed  i 
as  to  be  the  center  of  political  knowledge,  to  pursue  always  a  steady 
line  of  conduct,  and  to  reduce  every  irregular  propensity  to  system. 
Without  this  establishment  we  may  make  experiments  without  end, 
but  shall  never  have  an  efficient  government. 

It  is  an  unquestionable  truth  that  the  body  of  the  people  in 
every  country  desire  sincerely  its  prosperity.  But  it  is  equally  un- 
questionable that  they  do  not  possess  the  discernment  and  stability 
necessary  for  systematic  government.  To  deny  that  they  are  fre- 
quently led  into  the  grossest  errors  by  misinformation  and  passion 
would  be  a  flattery  which  their  own  good  sense  must  despise.  That 
branch  of  administration,  especially,  which  involves  our  political 
relation  with  foreign  states,  a  community  will  ever  be  incompetent 
to.  These  truths  are  not  often  held  up  in  public  assemblies,  but 
they  cannot  be  unknown  to  any  who  hear  me. 

Gentlemen  in  their  reasoning  have  placed  the  interests  of  the 
several  states  and  those  of  the  United  States  in  contrast.  This  is 
not  a  fair  view  of  the  subject.  They  must  necessarily  be  involved 
in  each  other.  What  we  apprehend  is  that  some  sinister  prejudice 
or  some  prevailing  passion   may  assume  the  form  of  a  genuine 


200  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

interest.  The  influence  of  these  is  as  powerful  as  the  most  perma- 
nent conviction  of  the  public  good,  and  against  this  influence  we 
ought  to  provide.  The  local  interests  of  a  state  ought  in  every 
case  to  give  way  to  the  interests  of  the  Union.  For  when  a 
sacrifice  of  one  or  the  other  is  necessary,  the  former  becomes  only 
an  apparent,  partial  interest,  and  should  yield,  on  the  principle 
that  the  smaller  good  ought  never  to  oppose  the  greater  one. 
When  you  assemble  from  your  several  counties  in  the  legislature, 
were  every  member  to  be  guided  only  by  the  apparent  interest 
of  his  county,  government  would  be  impracticable.  There  must 
be  a  perpetual  accommodation  and  sacrifice  of  local  advantage  to 
general  expediency.  But  the  spirit  of  a  more  popular  assembly 
would  rarely  be  actuated  by  this  important  principle.  It  is  there- 
fore absolutely  necessary  that  the  Senate  should  be  so  formed  as 
to  be  unbiased  by  false  conceptions  of  the  real  interests,  or  undue 
attachment  to  the  apparent  good,  of  their  several  states. 

Gentlemen  indulge  too  many  unreasonable  apprehensions  of 
danger  to  the  state  governments.  They  seem  to  suppose  that  the  mo- 
ment you  put  men  into  the  national  council  they  become  corrupt  and 
tyrannical,  and  lose  all  their  affection  for  their  fellow  citizens.  But 
can  we  imagine  that  the  senators  will  ever  be  so  insensible  of  their 
own  advantage  as  to  sacrifice  the  genuine  interest  of  their  constit- 
uents ?  The  state  governments  are  essentially  necessary  to  the 
form  and  spirit  of  the  general  system.  As  long,  therefore,  as  Con- 
gress has  a  full  conviction  of  this  necessity,  it  must,  even  upon 
principles  purely  national,  have  as  firm  an  attachment  to  the  one 
as  to  the  other.  This  conviction  can  never  leave  its  members  unless 
they  become  madmen.  While  the  Constitution  continues  to  be  read, 
and  its  principles  known,  the  states  must,  by  every  rational  man, 
be  considered  as  essential  component  parts  of  the  Union;  and 
therefore  the  idea"  of  sacrificing  the  former  to  the  latter  is  totally 
inadmissible. 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  20I 

IL  STATE  GOVERNMENTS  NECESSARY 

Hamilton  upholds  the  action  of  the  federal  Convention  in  not  disturbing 
the  local  powers  of  the  several  states.  He  believes  that  Congress  should  have 
only  general  powers,  that  domestic  and  civil  affairs  should  be  regulated  by 
the  states,  and  that  the  Senate  should  represent  the  states  as  units. 

Mr.  Chairman,  it  has  been  advanced  as  a  principle  that  no 
government  but  a  despotism  can  exist  in  a  very  extensive  country. 
This  is  a  melancholy  consideration  indeed.  If  it  v^ere  founded  on 
truth,  we  ought  to  dismiss  the  idea  of  a  republican  government, 
even  for  the  state  of  New  York.  This  idea  has  been  taken  from 
a  celebrated  writer,  who,  by  being  misunderstood,  has  been  the 
occasion  of  frequent  fallacies  in  our  reasoning  on  political  subjects. 
But  the  position  has  been  misapprehended,  and  its  application  is 
entirely  false  and  unwarrantable.  It  relates  only  to  democracies, 
where  the  whole  body  of  the  people  meet  to  transact  business, 
and  where  representation  is  unknown.  Such  were  a  number  of 
ancient,  and  some  modern  independent  cities.  Men  who  read 
without  attention  have  taken  these  maxims  respecting  the  extent 
of  country,  and,  contrary  to  their  proper  meaning,  have  applied 
them  to  republics  in  general.  This  application  is  wrong,  in  respect 
to  all  representative  governments,  but  especially  in  relation  to  a 
confederacy  of  states,  in  which  the  supreme  legislature  has  only 
general  powers,  and  the  civil  and  domestic  concerns  of  the  people 
are  regulated  by  the  laws  of  the  several  states.  This  distinction 
being  kept  in  view,  all  the  difficulty  will  vanish,  and  we  may  easily 
conceive  that  the  people  of  a  large  country  may  be  represented  as 
truly  as  those  of  a  small  one.  An  assembly  constituted  for  general 
purposes  may  be  fully  competent  to  every  federal  regulation, 
without  being  too  numerous  for  deliberate  conduct.  If  the  state 
governments  were  to  be  abolished,  the  question  would  wear  a 
different  face ;  but  this  idea  is  inadmissible.  They  are  absolutely 
necessary  to  the  system.  Their  existence  must  form  a  leading 
principle  in  the  most  perfect  constitution  we  could  form.  I  insist 
that  it  never  can  be  the  interest  or  desire  of  the  national  legislature 


202  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

to  destroy  the  state  governments.  It  can  derive  no  advantage  from 
such  an  event,  but,  on  the  contrary,  would  lose  an  indispensable 
support,  a  necessary  aid  in  executing  the  laws  and  conveying  the 
influence  of  government  to  the  doors  of  the  people.  The  Union  is 
dependent  on  the  will  of  the  state  governments  for  its  chief 
magistrate  and  for  its  Senate.  The  blow  aimed  at  the  members 
must  give  a  fatal  wound  to  the  head,  and  the  destruction  of  the 
states  must  be  at  once  political  suicide.  Can  the  national  govern- 
ment be  guilty  of  this  madness  ?  What  inducements,  what  temp- 
tations, can  they  have?  Will  they  attach  new  honors  to  their 
station ;  will  they  increase  the  national  strength ;  will  they  multiply 
the  national  resources ;  will  they  make  themselves  more  respect- 
able in  the  view  of  foreign  nations  or  of  their  fellow  citizens  by 
robbing  the  states  of  their  constitutional  privileges  ?  But  imagine 
for  a  moment  that  a  political  frenzy  should  seize  the  government. 
Suppose  they  should  make  the  attempt.  Certainly  it  would  be 
forever  impracticable.  This  has  been  sufficiently  demonstrated  by 
reason  and  experience.  It  has  been  proved  that  the  members 
of  republics  have  been,  and  ever  will  be,  stronger  than  the  head. 
Wherever  the  popular  attachments  are,  there  will  rest  the  political 
superiority.  Sir,  can  it  be  supposed  that  the  state  governments 
will  become  the  oppressors  of  the  people  ?  Will  they  forget  their 
affections  ?  Will  they  combine  to  destroy  the  liberties  and  happi- 
ness of  their  fellow  citizens,  for  the  sole  purpose  of  involving  them- 
selves in  ruin  ?  God  forbid !  The  idea  is  shocking !  It  outrages 
every  feeling  of  humanity  and  every  dictate  of  common  sense ! 


HENRY  CLAY 


Henry  Clay  (i 777-1 852),  though  endowed  by  nature 
with  gifts  superior  to  those  of  most  great  orators,  was  no 
exception  to  the  rule  that  the  orator  is  made.  Born  in 
Virginia  of  humble  par- 
entage, his  literary  train- 
ing in  the  schools  was  no 
better  than  that  of  other 
poor  boys  of  his  neigh- 
borhood, but  his  desire 
for  mental  improvement 
was  so  great  that  the  time 
his  fellows  devoted  to 
play  he  spent  in  reading 
and  study,  and  thus  early 
learned  the  invaluable  les- 
son of  self-dependence 
and  self-reliance  in  gain- 
ing knowledge. 

Though  obliged  to  give 
up  school  at  the  age  of 
fourteen,  it  was  his  good 

fortune,  through  the  influence  of  friends,  to  secure  the  posi- 
tion of  clerk  and  amanuensis  to  Chancellor  Wythe,  one  of 
the  ablest  jurists  of  Virginia,  himself  an  orator  of  no  mean 
ability.  This  scholarly  patron  soon  discovered  that  young 
Clay  possessed  unusual  talents  and  he  resolved  to  develop 
and  encourage  them.  Accordingly  he  gave  direction  to  Clay's 
studies,  pointed  out  certain  lines  of  thought  to  be  developed, 

203 


204  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

and,  as  a  wise  counselor,  stimulated  in  every  way  his  enthu- 
siastic protege.  The  careful  recording  of  the  chancellor's  able 
decisions  afforded  the  ardent  student,  besides  a  knowledge 
of  law,  a  mental  discipline  and  valuable  rhetorical  training. 
Four  years  this  schooling  continued,  and  Clay  advanced  with 
remarkable  facility  through  this  his  only  course  of  training. 

Upon  the  advice  of  his  patron  he  chose  law  as  his  profes- 
sion and  entered  the  office  of  Attorney-General  Brooke  at 
Richmond,  Virginia.  It  was  at  this  period  that  he  began  the 
discipline  that  afterwards  yielded  so  richly.  Appreciating  the 
fact  that  to  speak  well  one  must  have  opportunity  to  speak, 
he  organized  a  debating  society  among  the  leading  young 
men  of  aristocratic  Richmond.  Here  first  he  began  to  dis- 
play his  remarkable  gifts  of  oratory,  and  soon  achieved  such 
leadership  as  to  be  called  ''  the  peerless  star  of  the  society." 
Nor  did  he  relinquish  his  efforts  to  perfect  his  powers  of 
debate.  After  he  had  been  admitted  to  the  bar  and  had  re- 
moved to  Lexington,  Kentucky,  he  there  became  a  member 
of  a  debating  club,  in  whose  meetings  he  took  the  liveliest 
interest.  Like  many  others  who  afterwards  attained  eminence 
as  orators.  Clay  lacked  confidence  at  first  and  did  not  take 
part  in  the  discussions  for  several  meetings.  But  one  evening 
when  a  debate  was  about  to  be  closed  and  the  vote  taken,  he 
was  overheard  to  remark  that  the  subject  had  not,  in  his 
judgment,  been  fully  discussed.  Whereupon  his  friends 
urged  him  to  speak,  and  at  length  they  prevailed. 

Clay  arose  and  in  his  confusion  exclaimed,  "  Gentlemen 
of  the  jury."  The  assembly  was  amused  and  his  confusion 
increased.  Again  he  exclaimed,  ''  Gentlemen  of  the  jury," 
still  more  earnestly.  The  confusion  was  greater  than  ever. 
Stung  by  the  ridicule  of  his  audience  and  conscious  that  after 
all  the  address  was  not  inappropriate,  he  summoned  his  ener- 
gies, mastered  his  fears,  and  the  third  time  exclaimed  with 


HENRY  CLAY  205 

dignity  and  severity,  "  Gentlemen  of  the  jury,"  and  proceeded 
with  his  speech.  He  gained  confidence  from  the  start  and 
warmed  with  his  subject,  and  before  he  had  finished  he  had 
won  the  respect  and  admiration  of  all  present,  and  established 
his  reputation  as  a  man  of  determination  and  power.  This 
kind  of  exercise  was  continued  from  week  to  week  'for  a 
number  of  years,  and,  as  might  have  been  expected,  it  gave 
him  eminence  as  an  advocate. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  what  estimate  he  himself 
places  upon  oratorical  training.  He  declares  that  his  success 
is  not  due  to  "  sudden  illumination  while  speaking,"  but  to 
the  fact  that  he  began  at  an  early  age  the  daily  practice  of 
reading  aloud,  and  of  speaking  upon  the  contents  of  some 
scientific  or  historical  book.  "  These  off-hand  efforts,"  he  tells 
us,  "  were  sometimes  made  in  a  cornfield,  at  others  in  a 
forest,  and  not  infrequently  in  some  distant  barn  with  the 
horse  and  ox  for  my  auditors.  It  is  to  that  early  practice  of 
the  great,  art  of  arts  that  I  am  indebted  for  the  primary  and 
leading  impulses  that  stimulated  me  forward  and  shaped  and 
molded  my  subsequent  entire  destiny."  And  again  in  an 
address  to  the  students  of  Ballston  Law  School,  he  said, 
"  Think  not  that  any  great  excellence  of  advocacy  can  be  at- 
tained without  great  labor."  After  recounting  how  persist- 
ently he  had  practiced  in  youth  and  early  manhood  for  strength 
^of  voice  and  easy  flow  of  language,  he  continues  :  ''  Often  I 
^ade  the  hills  resound  in  my  walks,  and  many  a  herd  of 
gentle  grazing  cows  have  been  the  astonished  audience  of  my 
outpourings.  Improve  then,  young  gentlemen,  the  superior 
advantages  you  here  enjoy.  Let  not  a  day  pass  without 
exercising  your  powers  of  speech." 

In  outward  appearance  Clay  was  a  striking  figure,  six  feet 
one  inch  in  height,  well  proportioned,  majestic  in  bearing, 
with  ruddy  complexion,  abundant  light  hair,  blue  eyes,  a  large 


\ 


206  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

mouth,  and  full  lips  ready  to  speak.  He  was  not  handsome, 
but  his  face  wore  a  pleasing,  winning  expression,  and  intelli- 
gence beamed  from  every  part  of  his  countenance. 

But  his  greatest  physical  gift  was  his  marvelous  voice,  by 
nature  capable,  but  by  long  and  skillful  practice  come  to  be 
voluminous,  wide  of  compass,  flexible,  rich  in  quality,  and 
tender  —  in  short,  a  majestic  bass.  Some  of  his  contem- 
poraries declare  it  to  be  the  finest  musical  instrument  they 
ever  heard.  Its  inexpressible  charm  captivated  even  his 
enemies,  though  it  did  not  always  convince  them.  Randolph 
rose  from  a  sick  bed  and  was  carried  on  his  couch  into  the 
Senate  when  Clay  was  announced  to  speak,  that  he  ''  might 
hear  that  voice  once  more." 

Henry  Clay  illustrates  the  truth  that  character  is  essential 
to  the  highest  eloquence.  Emerson  once  said,  "  There  is 
no  eloquence  without  a  man  behind  it."  Oratory  is  a  moral 
force.  The  rhetorician  may  charm  with  his  eloquence,  may 
entertain  the  intellect  and  please  the  imagination,  but  it  re- 
quires moral  force  to  reach  the  will.  People  must  believe  in 
a  man  before  they  will  follow  him.  Clay's  honesty  and  up- 
rightness of  purpose  were  unquestioned.  During  his  whole 
career  no  species  of  corruption  stained  his  name.  His  kind- 
ness, his  sympathy,  his  benevolence,  and  his  uniform  cour- 
tesy made  him  a  favorite.  Charity  was  his  religion.  Ardent, 
fearless,  national  in  spirit,  possessed  of  a  grand  will,  he 
infused  these  qualities  into  his  followers,  to  whom  his  word 
was  a  command. 

In  style  Clay  had  every  weapon  of  oratory  at  his  disposal  — 
argument,  persuasion,  wit,  repartee,  invective,  illustration ; 
he  could  instruct,  convince,  arouse,  and  subdue.  With  no 
technical  skill  in  logic  and  rhetoric,  he  yet  became  a  great 
and  powerful  debater  because  he  was  a  close  observer  and 
grasped  intuitively  the  foundation  principles  of  those  sciences. 


HENRY  CLAY  20/ 

Ready  in  repartee,  it  was  impossible  to  outwit  him.  A  dull 
and  verbose  member  of  the  House  once  turned  on  Clay 
and  said  :  ''  You,  sir,  speak  for  the  present  generation,  but  I 
speak  for  posterity."  ''Yes  sir,"  said  Clay,  "and  you  seem 
resolved  to  speak  until  the  arrival  of  your  audience." 

Another  instance  will  illustrate  his  readiness  of  resource. 
An  old  hunter,  formerly  his  warm  supporter,  opposed  Clay's 
reelection  on  account  of  his  support  of  the  objectionable  com- 
pensation act.  Clay  tactfully  inquired,  "  Have  you  a  good  rifle, 
my  friend  .?  "  "  Yes."  ''  Did  it  ever  flash  ?  "  "  Once  only," 
"  What  did  you  do  with  it  —  throw  it  away  .?  "  "  No  I  picked 
the  lock,  tried  it  again,  and  brought  down  the  game."  "  Have 
I  ever  flashed  but  upon  the  Compensation  Bill .?  "  "  No." 
''  Will  you  throw  me  away .?  "  ''  No,  no,"  exclaimed  the 
hunter,  overcome  with  feeling ;  "  I  will  pick  the  flint  and 
try  you  again."  And  the  hunter  was  ever  after  his  warm 
supporter. 

Some  have  criticised  Clay's  style  because  he  amplified  so 
much,  but  like  Fox,  the  great  English  debater,  he  believed 
it  best  not  only  to  state  a  case  so  his  audience  could  under- 
stand it,  but  so  they  could  not  misunderstand  it.  To  do  this 
amplification  is  often  necessary.  Clay  appreciated  this,  for  it 
is  said  of  him  that  he  once  repeated  an  argument  four  times 
to  a  jury,  much  to  the'  discomfort  of  two  of  his  friends  .who 
afterward  remonstrated  with  him.  ''  But,"  answered  Clay, 
"  did  you  not  see  the  juryman  in  blue  jeans  sitting  in  the 
corner  }  "  "  No,  what  of  him  ?  "  ''  The  first  time  I  stated  the 
argument  I  won  eleven  jurymen.  But  one  must  secure  twelve 
jurymen  to  win  a  case.  I  saw  that  the  obstinate  juryman  was 
ignorant  and  so  stated  my  argument  a  second  time,  changing 
the  illustrations.  He  wavered  in  his  opinions.  I  stated  it  a 
third  time.  He  wavered  still  more  and  seemed  inclined  to  my 
side.    I  stated  the  argument  a  fourth  time  and  won  the  juror 


V 


2o8  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

and  will  have  the  verdict."    And  so  it  proved,  for  in  twenty 
minutes  the  jury  returned  with  a  verdict  for  his  client. 

While  not  a  profound  student,  Clay  strove  most  of  all  for 
strong  common  sense  and  a  clear  conception  of  the  subject ; 
on  this  account  and  because  he  spoke  extempore,  a  certain 
diffusiveness  of  style  could  be  excused  in  him.  He  wrote 
very  little.  Set  paragraphs  were  an  abomination  to  him, 
though  it  must  be  allowed  that  more  writing  would  have  been 
a  help  rather  than  an  injury  to  his  style,  because  it  lacked 
solidity.  When  compared  with  that  of  Webster  his  style  is  less 
compact,  less  classic,  and  will  be  less  and  less  sought,  while 
Webster's  will  grow  in  popularity.  It  is  said  that  if  one  heard 
these  two  men  on  the  same  side  of  a  subject  and  the  next 
day  read  their  speeches,_he  would  think  the  speech  of  Webster 
had  been  delivered  by  Clay,  and  Clay's  by  Webster,  Clay 
was  warm  and  popular  rather  than  argumentative.  Divested 
of  his  personality,  his  speeches  lose  their  interest.  You  can  no 
more  judge  of  their  effect  than  you  can  judge  of  a  song 
without  the  air,  or  of  beauty  from  a  skeleton. 

Carl  Schurz  says,  "  There  can  be  no  more  striking  proof  of 
his  power  than  the  immediate  effect  we  know  his  speeches  to 
have  produced  upon  those  who  heard  him,  compared  with  the 
impression  of  heavy  tameness  we  receive  when  merely  reading 
the  printed  reports."  James  Parton  agrees  with  this  opinion 
when  he  declares  that  Clay's  speeches  are  only  "  interesting 
as  relics  of  magnificent  and  dazzling  personality.  They  add 
carcely  anything  to  the  intellectual  property  of  the  nation." 
the  graces  of  delivery  Clay  was  supreme.    No  orator 

that  period  of  giants  could  equal  him  in  this.  Few  actors 
ever  attained  greater  skill -in^y^cal  method.  He  could  plead 
in  low  plaintive  notes  or  thunder  in  trumpet  tones.  Every 
part  of  his  compass  was  rich  and  strong.  His  ordinary  con- 
versation equaled  in  strength  the  energetic  utterance  of  most 


HENRY  CLAY  209 

people.  So  varied  were  his  tones,  so  musical  in  pitch,  that 
even  with  commonplace  thoughts  the  instrument  itself  held 
attention.  There  was  no  rant  or  vociferation,  his  voice  was 
unbroken  in  every  pitch,  majestic  in  melody,  and  his  cadences 
were  reached  without  tune  or  song.  When  aroused,  words 
came  faster  and  faster,  yet  deliberation  characterized  his  most 
passionate  climaxes. 

In  action  Clay  was  all  animation.  He  spoke  with  his  whole 
body.  No  gesture  was  premeditated  and  most  of  them  were 
large  and  sweeping.  Every  movement  of  body  seemed  neces- 
sary to  the  general  effect.  Every  change  of  sentiment  showed 
in  the  countenance,  the  smile,  the  form,  the  electric  beam 
of  the  eye.  No  matter  how  trivial  the  cause  he  was  pleading, 
he  maintained  a  courtliness  of  manner,  a  dignity  and  impres- 
siveness  of  bearing. 

In  method  of  delivery  he  was  less  majestic  than  Webster, 
more  conversational,  more  varied  and  direct  —  a  style  that 
could  rise  or  fall  and  still  retain  its  directness.  He  never 
seemed  to  be  trying  to  speak.  He  could  not  help  it.  It  was 
an  overflow.  When  he  was  furious  you  thought  he  ought  to 
be  so.  He  says  that  when  once  in  the  midst  of  his  speaking, 
he  is  unconscious  of  the  external  world  :  "  Wholly  engrossed 
by  the  subject  before  me,  I  lose  all  sense  of  personal  identity, 
of  time,  or  of  surrounding  objects." 

The  effect  of  his  eloquence  was  far-reaching.  Enemies 
who  would  not  be  convinced,  yielded  him  admiration  and 
sat  riveted  in  attention  until  he  had  finished.  All  the  world 
knows  that  by  his  eloquence  and  personal  character  he  held 
the  key  to  the  hearts  of  the  American  people.  His  enthusi- 
asm was  contagious,  and  often  in  the  Senate,  when  his  cause 
seemed  hopeless,  he  won  to  his  side  the  cooperation  of  luke- 
warm senators.  He  commanded  the  admiration  of  the  mul- 
titude over  whose  passions  he  held  absolute  control.    The 


2IO       .    BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

magnetism  of  his  ardent  temperament  radiated  to  his  farther- 
most auditor.  His  eloquence  made  him  the  popular  hero  and 
idol.  "  On  his  way  to  Washington,"  says  Parton,  "  the  public 
seized  him  and  bore  him  along  over  the  land,  the  committee 
of  one  state  passing  him  on  to  the  committee  of  another, 
and  the  hurrahs  of  one  town  dying  away  as  those  of  the  next 
caught  his  ear." 

Clay  lived  in  a  period  prolific  of  great  orators.  Compar- 
ing him  with  his  contemporaries,  we  shall  find  that  they 
excelled  him  in  some  particulars.  He  was  less  logical  than 
Calhoun,  less  picturesque  than  Prentiss,  not  so  compact  in 
style  or  splendid  in  diction  as  Webster,  not  so  scholarly  as 
John  Quincy  Adams,  but  in  native  force,  in  readiness,  in 
versatility,  in  eloquence,  he  was  not  excelled  by  any  of  them. 
"  Clay  possessed  in  a  far  higher  degree,"  says  Schurz,  "  the 
true  oratorical  temperament,  that  force  of  nervous  exaltation 
which  makes  the  orator  feel  himself  and  appear  to  others 
a  superior  being,  and  almost  irresistibly  transfers  his  thoughts, 
his  possessions,  and  his  will  into  the  mind  and  heart  of  the 
listener.  Webster  could  instruct,  convince,  and  elevate,  but 
Clay  would  overcome  his  audience."  This  made  him  superior 
to  Webster  as  a  leader,  for  his  personal  influence  over  his 
followers  was  so  great  that  they  involuntarily  sought  his  direc- 
tion and  waited  his  command.  He  put  the  ideas  of  his 
generation  in  a  form  for  general  approval,  and  shaped  and 
passed  more  laws  than  any  other  American.  He  was  not  a 
bookman,  but  he  outshone  men  of  greater  learning  because 
he  better  understood  the  art  of  adapting  his  knowledge. 
This  art  of  skillful  adaptation  coupled  with  his  splendid  abil- 
ities and  exalted  patriotism  made  him  the  tribune  of  the  people, 
whose  central  aim  appears  in  this  declaration  :  "If  any  one 
desires  to  know  the  leading  and  paramount  object  of  my  life, 
the  preservation  of  the  Union  will  furnish  him  the  key." 


HENRY  CLAY  211 

THE  GREEK  REVOLUTION 

This  speech  was  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  January  20, 
1824.  It  was  in  support  of  Webster's  resolution  of  sympathy  for  oppressed 
Greece.  He  meets,  with  admirable  taunt  and  sarcasm,  the  objection  that  it 
would  involve  this  nation  in  entangling  alliances,  and  pleads  with  the  mem- 
bers of  the  House  not  to  withhold  this  declaration  of  their  sentiments  regard- 
ing "  the  unexampled  wrongs  and  inexpressible  misery  of  Christian  Greece." 

It  has  been  said  that  the  proposed  measure  will  be  a  departure 
from  our  uniform  policy  with  respect  to  foreign  nations;  that  it 
will  provoke  the  wrath  of  the  holy  alliance ;  and  that  it  will,  in 
effect,  be  a  repetition  of  their  own  offense,  by  an  unjustifiable  inter- 
position in  the  domestic  concerns  of  other  powers. 

If  there  be  any  reality  in  the  dangers  which  are  supposed  to 
encompass  us,  should  we  not  animate  the  people,  and  adjure  them 
to  believe,  as  I  do,  that  our  resources  are  ample ;  and  that  we  can 
bring  into  the  field  a  million  of  freemen,  ready  to  exhaust  their  last 
drop  of  blood,  and  to  spend  the  last  cent  in  the  defense  of  the 
countr)^,  its  liberty,  and  its  institutions  ?  Sir,  are  these,  if  united, 
to  be  conquered  by  all  Europe  combined  ?  All  the  perils  to  which 
we  can  possibly  be  exposed,  are  much  less  in  reality  than  the 
imagination  is  disposed  to  paint  them.  And  they  are  best  averted 
by  an  habitual  contemplation  of  them,  by  reducing  them  to  their 
true  dimensions.  If  combined  Europe  is  to  precipitate  itself  upon 
us,  we  cannot  too  soon  begin  to  invigorate  our  strength,  to  teach 
our  heads  to  think,  our  hearts  to  conceive,  and  our  arms  to  execute, 
the  high  and  noble  deeds  which  belong  to  the  character  and  glory 
of  our  country.  The  experience  of  the  world  instructs  us  that 
conquests  are  already  achieved,  which  are  boldly  and  firmly  resolved 
on ;  and  that  men  only  become  slaves  who  have  ceased  to  resolve 
to  be  free.  If  we  wish  to  cover  ourselves  with  the  best  of  all  armor, 
let  us  not  discourage  our  people;  let  us  stimulate  their  ardor;  let  us 
sustain  their  resolution ;  let  us  proclaim  to  them  that  we  feel  as 
they  feel;  and  that,  with  them,  we  are  determined  to  live  or  die 
like  freemen. 


212  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

No  united  nation  that  resolves  to  be  free  can  be  conquered. 
And  has  it  come  to  this  ?  Are  we  so  humbled,  so  low,  so  debased, 
that  we  dare  not  express  our  sympathy  for  suffering  Greece ;  that 
we  dare  not  articulate  our  detestation  of  the  brutal  excesses  of 
which  she  has  been  the  bleeding  victim,  lest  we  might  offend  some 
one  or  more  of  their  imperial  and  royal  majesties  ?  If  gentlemen 
are  afraid  to  act  rashly  on  such  a  subject,  suppose,  Mr.  Chairman, 
that  we  unite  in  an  humble  petition,  addressed  to  their  majesties, 
beseeching  them  that,  of  their  gracious  condescension,  they  would 
allow  us  to  express  our  feelings  and  our  sympathies.  How  shall  it 
run  ?  "  We,  the  representatives  of  the  free  people  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  humbly  approach  the  thrones  of  your  imperial 
and  royal  majesties,  and  supplicate  that,  of  your  imperial  and  royal 
clemency  —  "I  cannot  go  through  the  disgusting  recital ;  my 
lips  have  not  yet  learned  to  pronounce  the  sycophantic  language  of 
a  degraded  slave !  Are  we  so  mean,  so  base,  so  despicable,  that 
we  may  not  attempt  to  express  our  horror,"  utter  our  indigna- 
tion at  the  most  brutal  and  atrocious  war  that  ever  stained  earth 
or  shocked  high  heaven  ?  at  the  ferocious  deeds  of  a  savage  and 
infuriated  soldiery,  stimulated  and  urged  on  by  the  clergy  of  a 
fanatical  and  inimical  religion,  and  rioting  in  all  the  excesses  of 
blood  and  butchery,  at  the  mere  details  of  which  the  heart  sickens 
and  recoils  ? 

If  the  great  body  of  Christendom  can  look  on  calmly  and  coolly 
whilst  all  this  is  perpetrated  on  a  Christian  people,  in  its  own  im- 
mediate vicinity,  in  its  very  presence,  let  us  at  least  evince  that 
one  of  its  remote  extremities  is  susceptible  of  sensibility  to  Christian 
wrongs,  and  capable  of  sympathy  for  Christian  sufferings ;  that  in 
this  remote  quarter  of  the  world  there  are  hearts  not  yet  closed 
against  compassion  for  human  woes,  that  can  pour  out  their  indig- 
nant feelings  at  the  oppression  of  a  people  endeared  to  us  by  every 
ancient  recollection  and  every  modern  tie. 

But,  sir,  it  is  not  for  Greece  alone  that  I  desire  to  see  this 
measure  adopted.  It  will  give  to  her  but  little  support,  and  that 
purely  of  a  moral- kind.    It  is  principally  for  America,  for  the  credit 


HENRY  CLAY  213 

and  character  of  our  common  country,  for  our  own  unsullied  name, 
that  I  hope  to  see  it  pass.  Mr.  Chairman,  what  appearance  on  the 
page  of  history  would  a  record  like  this  exhibit  ?  ''  In  the  month 
of  January,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  and  Savior,  1824,  while  all 
European  Christendom  beheld,  with  cold  and  unfeeling  indiffer- 
ence, the  unexampled  wrongs  and  inexpressible  misery  of  Christian 
Greece,  a  proposition  was  made  in  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States,  almost  the  sole,  the  last,  the  greatest  depository  of  human 
hope  and  human  freedom,  to  send  a  messenger  to  Greece  to  inquire 
into  her  state  and  condition,  with  a  kind  expression  of  our  good 
wishes  and  our  sympathies  .  .  .  and  it  was  rejected! "  Go  home,  if 
you  can ;  go  home,  if  you  dare,  to  your  constituents  and  tell  them 
that  you  voted  it  down ;  meet,  if  you  can,  the  appalling  counte- 
nances of  those  who  sent  you  here  and  tell  them  that  you  shrank 
from  the  declaration  of  your  own  sentiments ;  that  you  cannot  tell 
how,  but  that  some  unknown  dread,  some  indescribable  apprehen- 
sion, some  indefinable  danger,  drove  you  from  your  purpose ;  that 
the  specters  of  scimitars,  and  crowns,  and  crescents  gleamed  before 
you  and  alarmed  you  ;  and  that  you  suppressed  all  the  noble  feel- 
ings prompted  by  religion,  by  liberty,  by  national  independence, 
and  by  humanity.  I  cannot  bring  myself  to  believe  that  such  will 
be  the  feeling  of  a  majority  of  the  committee.  But,  for  myself, 
though  every  friend  of  the  cause  should  desert  it,  and  I  be  left  to 
stand  alone  with  the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts,  I  will  give  to 
his  resolution  the  poor  sanction  of  my  unqualified  approbation. 


214  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

SIXTY  YEARS  OF  SECTIONALISM 

This  speech  was  dehvered  in  the  United  States  Senate  in  support  of 
the  Compromise  of  1850,  on  February  6  of  that  year. 

I.  DISSOLUTION  AND  WAR  INSEPARABLE 

Mr.  Clay  calls  attention  in  the  beginning  to  the  prosperous  career  of  the 
nation  from  its  inception.  He  declares  that  it  has  grown  to  such  greatness 
as  to  command  the  respect  of  the  world;  that  new  territorial  acquisitions 
have  been  made  from  time  to  time,  which  have  conduced  to  the  interests 
of  both  sections.  Then  he  appeals  to  the  South  to  know  "  if  it  is  right  to 
press  matters  to  the  disastrous  consequences  that  have  been  intimated." 

Mr.  President,  we  are  told  now,  and  it  is  rung  throughout 
this  entire  country,  that  the  Union  is  threatened  with  subversion 
and  destruction.  Well,  the  first  question  which  naturally  arises  is, 
supposing  the  Union  to  be  dissolved,  —  having  all  the  causes  of 
grievance  which  are  complained  of,  —  How  far  will  a  dissolution 
furnish  a  remedy  for  those  grievances  ?  If  the  Union  is  to  be  dis- 
solved for  any  existing  causes,  it  will  be  dissolved  because  slavery 
is  interdicted  or  not  allowed  to  be  introduced  into  the  ceded  terri- 
tories ;  because  slavery  is  threatened  to  be  abolished  in  the  District 
of  Columbia,  and  because  fugitive  slaves  are  not  returned,  as  in  my 
opinion  they  ought  to  be,  and  restored  to  their  masters.  These,  I 
believe,  will  be  the  causes,  if  there  be  any  causes,  which  can  lead 
to  the  direful  event  to  which  I  have  referred. 

Well,  now,  let  us  suppose  that  the  Union  has  been  dissolved. 
What  remedy  does  it  furnish  for  the  grievances  complained  of  in  its 
united  condition .''  Will  you  be  able  to  push  slavery  into  the  ceded 
territories  ?  How  are  you  to  do  it,  supposing  the  North  —  all  the 
states  north  of  the  Potomac,  and  which  are  opposed  to  it  —  in 
possession  of  the  navy  and  army  of  the  United  States  ?  Can  you 
expect,  if  there  is  a  dissolution  of  the  Union,  that  you  can  carry 
slavery  into  California  and  New  Mexico  ?  You  cannot  dream  of 
such  a  purpose.  If  it  were  abolished  in  the  District  of  Columbia, 
and  the  Union  were  dissolved,  would  the  dissolution  of  the  Union 


HENRY  CLAY  215 

restore  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  ?  Are  you  safer  in  the 
recovery  of  your  fugitive  slaves,  in  a  state  of  dissolution  or  of 
severance  of  the  Union,  than  you  are  in  the  Union  itself  ?  Why, 
what  is  the  state  of  the  fact  in  the  Union  ?  You  lose  some  slaves. 
You  recover  some  others.  Let  me  advert  to  a  fact  which  I  ought 
to  have  introduced  before,  because  it  is  highly  creditable  to  the 
courts  and  juries  of  the  free  states.  In  every  case,  so  far  as  my 
information  extends,  where  an  appeal  has  been  made  to  the  courts 
of  justice  for  the  recovery  of  fugitives,  or  for  the  recovery  of 
penalties  inflicted  upon  persons  who  have  assisted  in  decoying 
slaves  from  their  masters  and  aiding  them  in  escaping  from  their 
masters  —  as  far  as  I  am  informed,  the  courts  have  asserted  the 
rights  of  the  owner,  and  the  juries  have  promptly  returned  adequate 
verdicts  in  favor  of  the  owner.  Well,  this  is  some  remedy.  What 
would  you  have  if  the  Union  were  dissevered  ?  Why,  sir,  then  the 
severed  parts  would  be  independent  of  each  other  —  foreign  coun- 
tries !  Slaves  taken  from  the  one  into  the  other  would  be  then  like 
slaves  now  escaping  from  the  L^nited  States  into  Canada.  There 
would  be  no  right  of  extradition  ;  no  right  to  demand  your  slaves  ; 
no  right  to  appeal  to  the  courts  of  justice  to  demand  your  slaves 
which  escape,  or  the  penalties  for  decoying  them.  Where  one  slave 
escapes  now,  by  running  away  from  his  owner,  hundreds  and 
thousands  would  escape  if  the  Union  were  severed  in  parts  —  I 
care  not  where  nor  how  you  run  the  line,  if  independent  sovereign- 
ties were  established. 

Well,  finally,  will  you,  in  a  state  of  dissolution  of  the  Union,  be 
safer  with  your  slaves  within  the  bosom  of  the  states  than  you  are 
now  ?  Mr.  President,  that  they  will  escape  much  more  frequently 
from  the  border  states,  no  one  will  doubt. 

But  I  must  take  the  occasion  to  say  that,  in  my  opinion,  there 
is  no  right  on  the  part  of  one  or  more  of  the  states  to  secede  from 
the  Union.  War  and  the  dissolution  of  the  Union  are  identical  and 
inseparable.  There  can  be  no  dissolution  of  the  Union  except  by 
consent  or  by  war.  No  one  can  expect,  in  the  existing  state 
of  things,  that  that  consent  would  be  given,  and  war  is  the  only 


2l6  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

alternative  by  which  a  dissolution  could  be  accomplished.  And, 
Mr.  President,  if  consent  were  given  —  if  possibly  we  were  to 
separate  by  mutual  agreement  and  by  a  given  line,  in  less  than 
sixty  days  after  such  an  agreement  had  been  executed  war  would 
break  out  between  the  free  and  slaveholding  portions  of  this 
Union  —  between  the  two  independent  portions  into  which  it  would 
be  erected  in  virtue  of  the  act  of  separation.  Yes,  sir,  sixty  days 
—  in  less  than  sixty  days,  I  believe,  our  slaves  from  Kentucky 
would  be  fleeing  over  in  numbers  to  the  other  side  of  the  river, 
would  be  pursued  by  their  owners,  and  the  excitable  and  ardent 
spirits  who  would  engage  in  the  pursuit  would  be  restrained  by  no 
sense  of  the  rights  which  appertain  to  the  independence  of  the 
other  side  of  the  river,  supposing  it,  then,  to  be  the  line  of  separa- 
tion. They  would  pursue  their  slaves  ;  they  would  be  repelled,  and 
war  would  break  out.  In  less  than  sixty  days  war  would  be  blazing 
forth  in  every  part  of  this  now  happy  and  peaceful  land. 

But  how  are  you  going  to  separate  them  ?  In  my  humble  opin- 
ion, Mr.  President,  we  should  begin  at  least  with  three  confed- 
eracies—  the  Confederacy  of  the  North,  the  Confederacy  of  the 
Atlantic  Southern  States  (the  slaveholding  states),  and  the  Confed- 
eracy of  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi.  My  life  upon  it,  sir,  that 
vast  population  that  has  already  concentrated,  and  will  concentrate, 
upon  the  headwaters  and  tributaries  of  the  Mississippi  will  never 
consent  that  the  mouth  of  that  river  shall  be  held  subject  to  the 
power  of  any  foreign  state  whatever.  Such,  I  believe,  would  be 
the  consequences  of  a  dissolution  of  the  Union.  But  other  con- 
federacies would  spring  up  from  time  to  time,  and  dissatisfaction 
and  discontent  be  disseminated  over  the  country.  There  would 
be  the  Confederacy  of  the  Lakes  —  perhaps  the  Confederacy  of 
New  England  and  .of  the  Middle  States. 

But,  sir,  the  veil  which  covers  these  sad  and  disastrous  events 
that  lie  beyond  a  possible  rupture  of  this  Union  is  too  thick  to  be 
penetrated  or  lifted  by  any  mortal  eye  or  hand. 


HENRY  CLAY  21/ 

11.    MENACE   OF  SECESSION 

Mr.  Clay  holds  that  states  have  no  right  to  secede ;  that  the  Union  is 
a  solemn  compact  not  to  be  broken  by  the  caprice  of  a  state  or  of  several 
states.  He  then  depicts  the  dire  results  of  the  fratricidal  conflict  which 
would  inevitably  follow  dissolution. 

Mr.  President,  I  am  directly  opposed  to  any  purpose  of  seces- 
sion, of  separation.  I  am  for  staying  within  the  Union,  and  defy- 
ing any  portion  of  this  Union  to  expel  or  drive  me  out  of  the 
Union.  I  am  for  staying  within  the  Union,  and  fighting  for  my 
rights  —  if  necessary,  with  the  sword  —  within  the  bounds  and 
under  the  safeguard  of  the  Union.  I  am  for  vindicating  these 
rights ;  but  not  by  being  driven  out  of  the  Union  rashly  and  un- 
ceremoniously by  any  portion  of  this  confederacy.  Here  I  am 
within  it,  and  here  I  mean  to  stand  and  die  ;  as  far  as  my  individual 
purposes  or  wishes  can  go,  within  it  to  protect  myself  and  to  defy 
all  power  upon  earth  to  expel  me  or  drive  me  from  the  situation 
in  which  I  am  placed.  Will  there  not  be  more  safety  in  fighting 
within  the  Union  than  without  it  ? 

Suppose  your  rights  to  be  violated  ;  suppose  wrongs  to  be  done 
you,  aggressions  to  be  penetrated  upon  you  ;  cannot  you  better 
fight  and  vindicate  them,  if  you  have  occasion  to  resort  to  that  last 
necessity  of  the  sword,  within  the  Union,  and  with  the  sympathies 
of  a  large  portion  of  the  population  of  the  Union  of  these  states 
differently  constituted  from  you,  than  you  can  fight  and  vindicate 
your  rights,  expelled  from  the  Union  and  driven  from  it  without 
ceremony  and  without  authority  ? 

I  said  that  I  thought  that  there  was  no  right  on  the  part  of  one 
or  more  of  the  states  to  secede  from  this  Union.  I  think  that  the 
Constitution  of  the  thirteen  states  was  made  not  merely  for  the 
generation  which  then  existed,  but  for  posterity,  undefined,  un- 
limited, permanent,  and  perpetual  —  for  their  posterity,  and  for 
every  subsequent  state  which  might  come  into  the  Union,  binding 
themselves  by  that  indissoluble  bond.  It  is  to  remain  for  that 
posterity  now  and  forever.    Like  another  of  the  great  relations 


2l8  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

of  private  life,  it  was  a  marriage  that  no  human  authority  can 
dissolve  or  divorce  the  parties  from. 

Mr.  President,  I  have  said  what  I  solemnly  believe  —  that  the 
dissolution  of  the  Union  and  war  are  identical  and  inseparable ; . 
that  they  are  convertible  terms.  Such  a  war,  too,  as  that  would  be, 
following  the  dissolution  of  the  Union !  Sir,  we  may  search  the 
pages  of  history,  and  none  so  furious,  so  bloody,  so  implacable,  so 
exterminating,  from  the  wars  of  Greece  down,  including  those  of 
the  Commonwealth  of  England  and  the  revolution  of  France  — 
none,  none  of  them  raged  with  such  violence,  or  was  ever  con- 
ducted with  such  bloodshed  and  enormities  as  will  that  war  which 
shall  follow  that  disastrous  event  —  if  that  event  ever  happens  — 
of  dissolution. 

And  what  would  be  its  termination  ?  Standing  armies  and 
navies,  to  an  extent  draining  the  revenues  of  each  portion  of  the 
dissevered  empire,  would  be  created ;  exterminating  wars  would 
follow  —  not  a  war  of  two  or  three  years,  but  of  interminable 
duration ;  an  exterminating  war  would  follow  until  some  Philip 
or  Alexander,  some  Caesar  or  Napoleon,  would  rise  to  cut  the 
Gordian  knot,  and  solve  the  problem  of  the  capacity  of  man  for 
self-government,  and  crush  the  liberties  of  both  the  dissevered  por- 
tions of  this  Union.  Can  you  doubt  it  ?  Look  at  history  —  consult 
the  pages  of  all  history,  ancient  or  modern ;  look  at  human  nature 
—  look  at  the  character  of  the  contest  in  which  you  would  be  en- 
gaged in  the  supposition  of  a  war  following  the  dissolution  of  the 
Union,  such  as  I  have  suggested ;  and  I  ask  you  if  it  is  possible 
for  you  to  doubt  that  the  final  but  perhaps  distant  termination  of 
the  whole  will  be  some  despot  treading  down  the  liberties  of  the 
people?  —  that  the  final  result  will  be  the  extinction  of  this  last 
and  glorious  light,  which  is  leading  all  mankind,  who  are  gazing 
upon  it,  to  cherish  hope  and  anxious  expectation  that  the  liberty 
which  prevails  here  will  sooner  or  later  be  advanced  throughout 
the  civilized  world  ?  Can  you,  Mr.  President,  lightly  contemplate 
the  consequences  ?  Can  you  yield  yourself  to  a  torrent  of  passion, 
amidst  dangers  which  I  have  depicted  in  colors  far  short  of  what 


HENRY  CLAY  219 

would  be  the  reality,  if  the  event  should  ever  happen  ?  I  conjure 
gentlemen,  whether  from  the  South  or  the  North,  by  all  they  hold 
dear  in  this  world  —  by  all  their  love  of  liberty,  by  all  their  venera- 
'  tion  for  their  ancestors,  by  all  their  regard  for  posterity,  by  all  their 
gratitude  to  Him  who  has  bestowed  upon  them  such  unnumbered 
blessings,  by  all  the  duties  which  they  owe  to  mankind  and  all  the 
duties  they  owe  to  themselves  —  by  all  these  considerations  I  im- 
plore them  to  pause,  solemnly  to  pause,  at  the  edge  of  the  precipice 
before  the  fearful  and  disastrous  leap  is  taken  in  the  yawning  abyss 
below,  which  will  inevitably  lead  to  certain  and  irretrievable  destruc- 
tion. And  I  implore,  as  the  best  blessing  which  heaven  can  bestow 
upon  me  on  earth,  that  if  the  direful  and  sad  event  of  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the  Union  shall  happen,  I  may  not  survive  to  behold  the 
sad  and  heart-rending  spectacle. 


DANIEL  WEBSTER 


Daniel  Webster  (i  782-1852)  was  one  of  the  most  scholarly 
of  American  statesmen.  His  scholastic  training  began  at 
the  knee  of  his  gifted  mother  and  in  the  district  school  of 

his  native  New  Hampshire. 
A  private  tutor  assisted  in 
his  preparation  for  Phillips 
Exeter  Academy.  He  en- 
tered Dartmouth  College  in 
1 797,  showed  brilliant  qual- 
ities as  a  student,  and  was 
graduated  in  180 1.  One  of 
his  teachers  said  of  him 
that  "  he  had  great  rapid- 
ity of  acquisition  and  was 
the  quickest  boy  in  school." 
He  was  an  incessant  reader, 
and  his  retentive  memory 
enabled  him  to  commit  with 
litde  effort  the  best  por- 
tions of  all  the  books  he 
read.  Soon  after  his  gradu- 
ation he  began  the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of  Christopher 
Gore,  one  of  the  leading  practitioners  of  Boston.  He  was 
admitted  to  the -bar  in  1805  and  took  up  the  practice  of 
law  in  his  native  state.  He  practiced  several  years  at  Ports- 
mouth, and  after  having  gained  considerable  reputation 
he  removed  to  Boston,  where  he  soon  rose  to  distinction 
at  the  bar. 


DANIEL  WEBSTER  221 

His  election  to  Congress  in  1812  was  the  beginning  of  his 
eventful  career  as  a  statesman.  He  served  several  terms,  but 
not  continuously,  as  representative,  first  from  New  Hamp- 
shire and  then  from  Massachusetts.  In  1827  he  was  chosen 
senator  from  Massachusetts  and  served  continuously  in  that 
office  until  1841,  when  he  became  Secretary  of  State.  In 
1845  he  returned  to  the  Senate  and  held  the  office  until  his 
death  in  1852. 

Webster  was  always  a  student  of  men  and  of  affairs. 
Believing,  as  he  says,  that  "there  is  no  such  a  thing  as  extem- 
poraneous acquisition,"  he  devoted  himself  diligently  not  only 
to  the  literature  of  his  profession,  but  to  general  literature, 
philosophy,  economics,  and  history,  and  applied  his  abundant 
knowledge  to  the  intricate  problems  of  state.  The  Bible, 
Milton,  Shakespeare,  and  Addison  were  his  favorite  books. 
The  strength  and  beauty  of  his  imagery  can  be  traced  in  great 
measure  to  his  intimacy  with  these  classics.  He  says  that 
"  the  Bible  is  the  book  of  all  others  for  lawyers  as  well  as 
divines.  I  pity  the  man  that  cannot  find  in  it  a  rich  supply 
of  thought,  and  of  rules  for  his  conduct.  It  fits  man  for  life, 
it  prepares  him  for  death." 

Webster  was  blessed  with  an  oratorical  temperament,  and 
the  hills  of  New  Hampshire  were  a  fit  environment  to  cul- 
tivate that  spirit.  He  was  fond  of  outdoor  life  and  loved  the 
grand  and  large  in  nature. 

His  oratorical  training  began  early,  for  he  was  fond  of 
reading  aloud  and  declaiming.  The  teamsters  who  passed  his 
father's  door  were  accustomed  to  rest  there  awhile  and  listen 
to  the  boy  as  he  declaimed  or  read  from  the  Bible.  But 
strange  to  say  there  came  a  time  during  his  stay  at  Exeter 
when  he  grew  very  diffident  about  speaking.  He  was  too  timid 
to  appear  before  the  boys  on  declamation  days.  He  says  him- 
self, "  Many  a  piece  did  I  commit  to  memory  and  recite  and 


222  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

rehearse  in  my  room  over  and  over  again  ;  yet  when  the  day 
came  and  my  name  was  called  and  I  saw  all  eyes  turned  to 
my  seat  I  could  not  raise  myself  from  it."  But  at  Dartmouth 
he  seemed  to  have  got  over  his  timidity  and  devoted  a 
great  deal  of  time  to  speaking,  and  became  a  leader  in  the 
college  societies,  insomuch  that  he  was  called  upon  by  the 
citizens  of  the  town  of  Hanover,  in  which  Dartmouth  is 
located,  to  deliver  a  speech  on  the  Fourth  of  July  while  he 
was  yet  but  sixteen  years  of  age.  He  practiced  extempore 
speaking,  but  more  frequently  prepared  his  speeches  very 
carefully  by  meditation  on  the  subject.  His  manner  in  his 
earlier  years  was  peculiar.  He  seemed  at  first  sluggish  and 
sleepy,  but  as  he  awakened  under  the  glow  of  his  thought  and 
feeling  he  took  possession  of  his  audience  and  held  them  to 
the  end  of  his  speech.  While  he  was  naturally  sluggish,  "the 
time  never  came,"  says  Senator  Lodge,  "  when,  if  fairly  roused, 
he  failed  to  sway  the  hearts  and  understandings  of  men  by  a 
grand  and  splendid  eloquence.  The  lion  slept  very  often,  but 
it  never  became  safe  to  rouse  him  from  his' slumber." 
'  As  a  young  man  Webster  took  great  pains  to  perfect  his 
style  of  oratory.  His  first  public  speech  being  praised  for 
its  vigor  and  eloquence,  and  censured  for  its  emptiness  in 
parts,  he  says,  "  I  resolved  that  whatever  should  be  said  of 
my  style  from  that  time  forth,  there  should  not  be  any  empti- 
ness in  it.  Besides,  I  remembered  that  I  had  to  earn  my  bread 
by  addressing  the  understandings  of  common  men,  by  con- 
vincing juries,  and  that  I  must  use  language  intelligible  to 
them.  .  .  .  When  I  was  a  young  man  my  style  was  bombastic, 
and  pompous  in  the  extreme,  and  I  determined  to  correct  it  if 
labor  could  do  it."  His  education  in  this  particular  was  a 
constant  growth.  He  was  his  own  severest  critic  and  strove 
always  for  strength  and  simplicity.  His  speeches  on  special 
occasions  give  evidence  of  the  most  painstaking  preparation. 


DANIEL  WEBSTER  223 

No  wonder  when  we  desire  to  laud  the  eloquence  and  solidity 
of  men's  oratory  we  call  it  Websterian. 

His  gifts  in  speaking,  in  his  early  forensic  efforts  at  Ports- 
mouth, were  greatly  stimulated  by  the  opposition  of  Jeremiah 
Mason,  then  the  most  distinguished  trial  lawyer  in  New  Eng- 
land. The  two  were  pitted  against  each  other  in  most  of  the 
great  cases  at  that  time.  Mason's  manner  was  anything  but 
bombastic.  He  stood  near  to  his  jury  and  talked  in  simple, 
everyday  English  to  them,  "using  no  word  that  was  not 
level  to  the  comprehension  of  the  least  educated  man  on  the 
panel,"  and  he  seldom  lost  a  verdict.  Webster  soon  learned 
that  to  compete  with  such  a  man  he  must  speak  simply  and 
directly,  so  as  to  be  perfectly  intelligible  at  all  times. 

The  supreme  effort  of  Webster  in  his  oratorical  study  was 
to  gain  simplicity  and  strength.  His  preference  for  Saxon 
words,  instead  of  Latin  or  Greek  derivatives,  and  the  almost 
utter  lack  of  Latin  phrase,  makes  his  style  unite  the  simple 
with  the  picturesque  and  the  massive.  No  strength  is  wasted 
in  long  and  involved  sentences.  It  is  doubtful  whether  on 
this  side  the  seas  we  have  produced  any  better  prose  than 
that  of  Webster.  He  is  studied  by  the  schools  for  the  weight 
of  his  thought  and  the  strength  of  his  imagery.  His  speeches 
have  become  classics  in  our  literature  ;  they  are  read  and 
declaimed  in  the  district  schools.  His  maxims  became  the 
slogans  of  the  North  during  the  war  for  the  Union. 

Not  so  great  a  genius  as  Burke,  he  w^as  far  more  effective 
as  a  speaker ;  like  Burke,  he  could  make  excursions  of  fancy 
but  he  never  lost  sight  of  the  issues — not  so  great  a  political 
philosopher  but  a  better  reasoner  and  a  wiser  statesman. 

Webster  excelled  in  all  the  types  of  oratory — the  forensic, 
the  political,  and  the  occasional.  There  is  no  greater  forensic 
address  in  our  annals  than  Webster's  speech  in  the  White 
Murder  Case,  no  greater  political  oration  than  his  "Reply  to 


224  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

Hayne  ";  no  finer  occasional  speech  than  his  "First  Bunker  Hill 
Address."  There  are  other  speeches  of  nearly  equal  strength 
in  each  of  these  classes,  all  of  them  characterized  by  "massive- 
ness  of  thought,  dignity  and  grandeur  of  expression,  and 
range  of  vision."  "  Other  men,"  says  Senator  Lodge,  "  have 
been  more  versatile,  possessed  of  a  richer  imagination  and 
more  gorgeous  style,  with  a  more  brilliant  wit  and  a  keener 
sarcasm,  but  there  is  not  one  so  absolutely  free  from  faults  of 
taste  as  Webster,  or  who  is  so  uniformly  simple  and  pure  in 
thought  and  style,  even  to  the  point  of  severity." 

His  speeches  give  him  rank  as  one  of  America's  greatest 
authors.  What  language  more  pure,  style  more  harmonious, 
thought  more  profound  among  our  authors.?  "  As  a  repository 
of  political  truth  and  practical  wisdom,"  says  Edward  Everett, 
"  I  know  not  where  we  shall  find  their  equal.  The  works  of 
Burke  naturally  suggest  themselves  as  the  only  writings  in 
our  language  that  can  sustain  the  comparison."  And  Choate 
declares  that  "  his  multiform  eloquence,  exactly  as  his  words 
fell,  became  at  once  so  much  accession  to  permanent  literature, 
in  the  strictest  sense  solid,  attractive,  and  rich";  "whose 
words,"  says  John  D.  Long,  "  come  to  the  tongue  like 
passages  from  the  poets  or  the  Psalms."  Contrary  to  Fox's 
maxim  that  a  good  speech  does  not  read  well,  Webster's 
speeches  both  read  well  and  sound  well. 

Webster's  oratory  was  greatly  enhanced  by  his  wonderful 
physical  attributes,  for  he  was  perfectly  formed  by  nature  for 
the  career  of  an  orator  and  statesman.  His  personal  presence 
made  a  lasting  impression  on  all  who  saw  him.  He  was  five 
feet  ten  inches  in  height,  and  weighed  about  two  hundred 
pounds.  He  had  a  massive  head  covered  with  raven-black 
hair,  a  lofty  brow,  and  deep-set  black  eyes.  His  complexion 
was  very  dark,  his  nose  aquiline,  and  his  mouth  large.  In 
one  of  the  studios  of  Rome  his  bust  was  once  mistaken  for 


DANIEL  WEBSTER  225 

that  of  Jupiter.  His  dignity  and  impressiveness  caused  him 
often  to  be  called  the  ''god-like  Daniel."  His  walk,  his  man- 
ner, his  leonine  look,  were  all  in  so  grand  a  style  that  they 
not  only  never  disappointed  the  eye,  but  one  instinctively 
would  turn  to  get  a  better  glimpse  of  him  as  he  passed 
along.  Henry  Hudson  says,  "  He  was  incomparably  the 
finest-looking,  rather  say  the  grandest-looking,  man  I  ever 
set  eyes  on."  Carlyle  called  him  a  ''magnificent  specimen, 
a  parliamentary  Hercules,  whom  one  would  back  against  the 
world." 

His  voice  was  of  great  compass — large  and  full,  rich  and 
organ-like  in  its  swell.  When  he  rose  to  speak  throngs  were 
ready  to  listen,  and  they  hung  on  his  every  word.  Mr.Ticknor, 
just  after  Webster's  reply  to  Hayne,  wrote  to  a  friend  : 
"  Whether  his  speech  was  so  absolutely  unrivaled  as  I  imagined 
when  I  was  under  the  influence  of  his  presence,  of  his  tones, 
of  his  looks,  I  cannot  be  sure  till  I  have  read  it,  for  it  seems 
to  me  incredible.  I  was  never  so  excited  by  public  speaking 
before  in  my  life.  Three  or  four  times  I  thought  my  temples 
would  burst  from  the  gush  of  blood."  Such  was  the  effect 
on  those  who  heard  him  in  his  loftiest  moments.  His  massive 
intellectual  power  and  his  fine  feeling,  conveyed  through  so 
imposing  a  presence  and  a  voice  of  such  beauty  and  power, 
his  simplicity  in  diction  and  directness  in  manner,  made  him 
the  figure  whom  Americans  delight  to  place  highest  in  the 
roll  of  their  great  orators. 

Webster  never  spoke  except  on  great  occasions  and  on 
great  themes.  Not  so  agile  and  adaptable  as  Clay,  he  was  less 
useful  in  ordinary  legislation.  But  when  the  occasion  was  one 
of  national  importance,  all  eyes  turned  to  Webster  as  their 
mouthpiece.  He  was  looked  to  as  the  defender  of  the  Consti- 
tution and  as  the  embodiment  of  national  strength.  Ready 
of  resource,  he  was  prepared  for  the  gravest  emergencies. 


226  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

When  a  reply  was  to  be  made  to  Senator  Hayne  the  North 
looked  to  Webster  to  champion  the  Union  cause.  But  when 
certain  senators  expressed  doubt  as  to  his  preparedness 
Webster  drew  forth  from  his  desk  a  package  of  notes,  saying 
"  If  Hayne  had  tried,  he  could  not  have  hit  my  notes  better." 
The  principles  embodied  in  his  speech  had  been  wrought  out 
months  before,  for  he  was  aware  of  the  coming  conflict.  An 
example  of  his  habit  of  previous  thought  and,  in  this  instance, 
actual  verbal  preparation  is  shown  in  the  paragraph  on  the 
greatness  of  England,  in  his  speech  of  May  7,  1834,  in  which 
he  speaks  of  that  nation  as  ''  a  power  which  has  dotted  the 
face  of  the  whole  globe  with  her  possessions  and  military 
posts ;  whose  morning  drumbeat,  following  the  sun  and 
keeping  company  with  the  hours,  encircles  the  earth  with  one 
continuous  and  unbroken  strain  of  the  martial  airs  of 
England."  The  paragraph  from  which  this  extract  is  taken 
was  composed  fourteen  years  before  its  utterance,  while  its 
author  stood  on  the  citadel  of  Quebec  and  surveyed  the 
vast  panorama  that  lay  before  him  along  the  picturesque 
St.  Lawrence. 

Webster  w^as  an  attractive  personality  in  a  social  way.  He 
was  affectionate  in  disposition,  fond  of  good  company,  and 
enjoyed  good  stories.  While  not  a  humorist,  he  had  a  keen 
sense  of  the  ridiculous,  though  his  speeches  contain  but  few 
indications  of  it.  Though  a  splendid  mimic  in  his  daily  inter- 
course, and  a  man  of  great  dramatic  power,  who  might  have 
been  a  successful  actor,  yet  in  his  speeches  there  was  a  weight 
and  a  strong  sense  of  personal  dignity  that  dispelled  all  im- 
pression of  flippancy.  But  his  gift  of  taunt  and  sarcasm  in 
public  address  was  a  source  of  great  effectiveness  in  moving 
assemblies.  "His  union  of  greatness  with  depth  of  heart 
made  his  speaking,"  says  Choate,  ''  more  an  exhibition  of 
character  than  of  mere  genius." 


DANIEL  WEBSTER  22/ 

But  Webster  was  not  only  the  greatest  orator  America  has 
produced  ;  he  was  one  of  the  few  great  orators  of  the  world, 
and  in  the  history  of  eloquence  deserves  to  rank  with  Demos- 
thenes, Cicero,  St.  Chrysostom,  Bossuet,  Chatham,  and  Burke. 
For  thirty  years  he  stood  at  the  head  of  the  bar  of  the  United 
States  and  was  accounted  the  most  influential  and  the  most 
talented  member  of  the  Senate.  Hamilton  and  Madison  laid 
the  foundation  of  the  Constitution ;  Webster  was  the  leading 
spirit  in  building  the  superstructure.  So  high  a  place  did 
he  take  in  the  discussion  of  the  principles  and  the  meaning 
of  the  Constitution,  and  so  much  did  the  advocates  of  the 
Union  depend  upon  his  interpretation  of  it,  that  he  will  ever 
be  known  as  the  "  Great  Defender  of  the  Constitution." 
When  he  died  men  wondered  how  the  nation  could  survive. 
This  implies  leadership,  uncommon  personality,  and  remark- 
able gifts  of  eloquence.  "  Rejoice,"  says  Justice  Story,  ''that 
we  have  lived  in  the  same  age  ;  that  we  have  listened  to  his 
eloquence  and  been  instructed  by  his  wisdom." 

The  great  speeches  of  Webster  may  be  divided  into  three 
classes  —  forensic,  political,  and  occasional.  Under  the  first 
class,  in  the  order  of  their  delivery,  we  have  the  "  Dartmouth 
College  Case"  (1818),  "Gibson  vs.  Ogden "  (1829),  the 
"White  Murder  Case"  (1830),  and  the  "Girard  Will  Case" 
(1844).  His  chief  political  orations  are  the  "  Greek  Revo- 
lution" (1824),  the  "Reply  to  Hayne"  (1830),  the  "Consti- 
tution not  a  Compact"  (1833),  "  Speech  at  Niblo's  Garden" 
(1837),  and  the  "  Compromises  of  the  Constitution  "  (1850), 
In  the  class  of  occasional  addresses  are  the  following :  the 
"  Pl>Tnouth  Oration  "  (1820),  "  First  Bunker  Hill  Address  " 
(1825),  "Eulogy  on  Adams  and  Jefferson"  (1826),  "Progress 
of  the  Mechanic  Arts"  (1828),  "Eulogy  on  Washington" 
(1832),  "  Second  Bunker  Hill  Address"  (1843),  and  "  Lay- 
ing the  Corner  Stone  of  the  Capitol  "  (185 1). 


228  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 


REPLY  TO  IIAYNE 

This  speech  was  delivered  in  the  United  States  Senate  in  reply  to 
Senator  Ilayne  of  South  Carolina,  January  26,  1830.  The  subject  of  the 
discussion  was  the  Foote  Resolution  on  the  disposition  of  the  public  lands. 

I.  MATCHES  AND  OVERMATCHES 

The  senator  from  South  Carolina  had  digressed  very  much  from  the 
subject  under  discussion.  He  had  made  an  intensely  partisan  speech,  in 
one  part  of  which  he  questions  Webster  as  to  whether  he  considered  him- 
self a  match  in  debate  for  the  senator  from  Missouri  (Benton). 

Mr.  President,  when  the  mariner  has  been  tossed  for  many 
days,  in  thick  weather,  and  on  an  unknown  sea,  he  naturally  avails 
himself  of  the  first  pause  in  the  storm,  the  earliest  glance  of  the  sun, 
to  take  his  latitude  and  ascertain  how  far  the  elements  have  driven 
him  from  his  true  course.  Let  us  imitate  this  prudence,  and,  be- 
fore we  float  further  on  the  waves  of  this  debate,  refer  to  the 
point  from  which  wc  departed,  that  we  may  at  least  be  able  to  con- 
jecture where  we  now  are.    I  ask  for  the  reading  of  the  resolution. 

(The  resolution  which  related  to  the  sale  of  public  lands  was 
here  read  by  the  secretary  of  the  Senate.) 

We  have  thus  heard  what  the  resolution  is,  which  is  actually  be- 
fore us  for  consideration ;  and  it  will  readily  occur  to  every  one 
that  it  is  almost  the  only  subject  about  which  something  has  not 
been  said  in  the  speech,  running  through  two  days,  by  which  the 
Senate  has  been  entertained  by  the  gentleman  from  South  Carolina. 
Every  topic  in  the  wide  range  of  our  public  affairs,  whether  past  or 
present — everything,  general  or  local,  whether  belonging  to  national 
politics  or  party  politics,  seems  to  have  attracted  more  or  less  of  the 
honorable  member's  attention,  save  only  the  resolution  before  the 
Senate.  He  has  spoken  of  everything  but  the  public  lands.  They 
have  escaped  his  notice.  To  that  subject,  in  all  his  excursions,  he 
has  not  paid  even  the  cold  respect  of  a  passing  glance. 

The  honorable  member  complained  that  I  had  slept  on  his 
speech.    1  must  have  slept  on  it,  or  not  slept  at  all.    The  moment 


DANIEL  WEBSTER  229 

the  honorable  member  sat  down,  his  friend  from  Missouri  rose, 
and,  with  much  honeyed  commendation  of  the  speech,  suggested 
that  the  impressions  which  it  had  produced  were  too  charming  and 
delightful  to  be  disturbed  by  other  sentiments  or  other  sounds, 
and  proposed  that  the  Senate  should  adjourn.  Would  it  have  been 
quite  amiable  in  me,  sir,  to  interrupt  this  excellent  good  feeling  ? 
Must  I  not  have  been  absolutely  malicious  if  I  could  have  thrust 
myself  forward  to  destroy  sensations  thus  pleasing?  Was  it  not 
much  better  and  kinder,  both  to  sleep  upon  them  myself  and  to 
allow  others  also  the  pleasure  of  sleeping  upon  them  ?  But  if  it  be 
meant,  by  sleeping  upon  his  speech,  that  I  took  time  to  prepare  a 
reply  to  it,  it  is  quite  a  mistake.  I  did  sleep  on  the  gentleman's 
speech ;  and  slept  soundly.  And  I  slept  equally  well  on  his  speech 
of  yesterday,  to  which  1  am  now  replying. 

But  the  gentleman  inquires  why  he  was  made  the  object  of 
such  a  reply.  Why  was  he  singled  out  ?  If  an  attack  has  been 
made  on  the  East,  he,  he  assures  us,  did  not  begin  it ;  it  was  the 
gentleman  from  Missouri.  Sir,  I  answered  the  gentleman's  speech 
because  I  happened  to  hear  it ;  and  because,  also,  I  chose  to  give  an 
answer  to  that  speech  which,  if  unanswered,  I  thought  most  likely 
to  produce  injurious  impressions.  I  did  not  stop  to  inquire  who 
was  the  original  drawer  of  the  bill.  I  found  a  responsible  indorser 
before  me,  and  it  was  my  purpose  to  hold  him  liable  and  to  bring 
him  to  his  just  responsibility  without  delay.  But,  sir,  this  interrog- 
atory of  the  honoi"able  member* was  only  introductory  to  another. 
He  proceeded  to  ask  me  whether  I  had  turned  upon  him,  in  this 
debate,  from  the  consciousness  that  I  should  find  an  overmatch  if 
I  ventured  on  a  contest  with  his  friend  from  Missouri. 

If,  sir,  the  honorable  member  had  chosen  thus  to  defer  to  his 
friend,  and  to  pay  him  a  compliment,  without  intentional  disparage- 
ment to  others,  it  would  have  been  quite  according  to  the  friendly 
courtesies  of  debate,  and  not  at  all  ungrateful  to  my  own  feelings. 
I  am  not  one  of  those,  sir,  who  esteem  any  tribute  of  regard, 
whether  light  and  occasional,  or  more  serious  and  deliberate,  which 
may  be  bestowed  on  others,  as  so  much  unjustly  withholden  from 


230  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

themselves.  But  the  tone  and  manner  of  the  gentleman's  question 
forbid  me  thus  to  interpret  it.  I  am  not  at  liberty  to  consider  it  as 
nothing  more  than  a  civility  to  his  friend.  It  had  an  air  of  taunt 
and  disparagement,  something  of  the  loftiness  of  asserted  superi- 
ority, which  does  not  allow  me  to  pass  it  over  without  notice^Iti 
was  put  as  a  question  for  me  to  answer,  and  so  put  as  if  it  were 
/diflficult  for  me  to  answer,  whether  I  deemed  the  member  from 
Missouri  an  overmatch  for  myself  in  debate  here.  It  seems  to 
me,  sir,  that  this  is  extraordinary  language,  and  an  extraordinary 
tone,  for  the  discussions  of  this  body. 

Matches  and  overmatches !  Those  terms  are  more  applicable 
elsewhere  than  here,  and  fitter  for  other  assemblies  than  this.  Sir, 
the  gentleman  seems  to  forget  where  and  what  we  are.  This  is  a 
Senate,  a  Senate  of  equals,  of  men  of  individual  honor  and  personal 
character,  and  of  absolute  independence.  We  know  no  masters,  we 
acknowledge  no  dictators.  This  is  a  hall  for  mutual  consultation 
and  discussion ;  not  an  arena  for  the  exhibition  of  champions.  I 
offer  myself,  sir,  as  a  match  for  no  man ;  I  throw  the  challenge 
of  debate  at  no  man's  feet.  But  then,  sir,  since  the  honorable 
member  has  put  the  question  in  a  manner  that  calls  for  an  answer, 
I  will  give  him  an  answer ;  and  I  tell  him  that,  holding  myself  to 
be  the  humblest  of  the  members  here,  I  yet  know  nothing  in  the 
arm  of  his  friend  from  Missouri,  either  alone  or  when  aided  by  the 
arm  of  his  friend  from  South  Carolina,  that  need  deter  even  me 
from  espousing  whatever*  opinions  I  may  choose  to  espouse,  from 
debating  whenever  I  may  choose  to  debate,  or  from  speaking 
whatever  I  may  see  fit  to  say,  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate. 

Sir,  when  uttered  as  matter  of  commendation  or  compliment,  I 
should  dissent  from  nothing  which  the  honorable  member  might 
say  of  his  friend.  .Still  less  do  I  put  forth  any  pretensions  of  my 
own.  But  when  put  to  me  as  a  matter  of  taunt,  I  throw  it  back, 
and  say  to  the  gentleman  that  he  could  possibly  say  nothing  more 
likely  than  such  a  comparison  to  wound  my  pride  of  personal 
character.  The  anger  of  its  tone  rescued  the  remark  from  in- 
tentional irony,  which  otherwise,  probably,  would  have  been  its 


DANIEL  WEBSTER  23 1 

general  acceptation.  But,  sir,  if  it  be  imagined  that  by  this  mutual 
quotation  and  commendation  ;  if  it  be  supposed  that,  by  casting 
the  characters  of  the  drama,  assigning  to  each  his  part — to  one  the 
attack,  to  another  the  cry  of  onset ;  or  if  it  be  thought  that,  by  a 
loud  and  empty  vaunt  of  anticipated  victory,  any  laurels  are  to  be 
won  here ;  if  it  be  imagined,  especially,  that  any  or  all  these  things 
will  shake  any  purpose  of  mine,  I  can  tell  the  honorable  member, 
once  for  all,  that  he  is  greatly  mistaken,  and  that  he  is  dealing  with  . 
/  one  of  whose  temper  and  character  he  has  yet  much  to  learn.  ^^ 
Sir,  I  shall  not  allow  myself  on  this  occasion,  I  hope  on  no 
occasion,  to  be  betrayed  into  any  loss  of  temper ;  but,  if  provoked, 
as  I  trust  I  never  shall  be,  into  crimination  and  recrimination,  the 
honorable  member  may  perhaps  find  that,  in  that  contest,  there 
will  be  blows  to  take  as  well  as  blows  to  give ;  that  others  can 
state  comparisons  as  significant,  at  least,  as  his  own ;  and  that  his 
impunity  may  possibly  demand  of  him  whatever  powers  of  taunt 
and  sarcasm  he  may  possess.  I  commend  him  to  a  prudent 
husbandry  of  his  resources. 

II.    MASSACHUSETTS  AND   SOUTH   CAROLINA 

Webster  defends  the  action  of  the  North  in  freeing  her  own  slaves  and 
in  urging  that  slavery  be  not  extended  into  the  territories.  He  calls  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  that  the  South  was  hostile  to  internal  improvements.  He 
then  discusses  the  attitude  of  New  England  as  opposed  to  the  tariff,  and 
makes  reference  to  Senator  Hayne's  strictures  upon  New  England. 

Professing  to  be  provoked  by  what  he  chose  to  consider  a 
charge  made  by  me  against  South  Carolina,  the  honorable  member, 
Mr.  President,  has  taken  up  a  new  crusade  against  New  England. 
Leaving  altogether  the  subject  of  the  public  lands,  he  sallied  forth 
in  a  general  assault  on  the  opinions,  politics,  and  parties  of  New 
England,  as  they  have  been  exhibited  in  the  last  thirty  years.  No 
wonder,  therefore,  the  gentleman  wished  to  carry  the  war,  as  he 
expressed  it,  into  the  enemy's  country.  The  politics  of  New  Eng- 
land became  his  theme ;  and  it  was  in  this  part  of  his  speech,  I 
think,  that  he  menaced  me  with  such  sore  discomfiture.    Why,  sir, 


232  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

when  he  attacks  anything  which  I  maintain,  and  overthrows  it ; 
when  he  turns  the  right  or  left  of  any  position  which  I  take 
up ;  when  he  drives  me  from  any  ground  I  choose  to  occupy,  he 
may  then  talk  of  discomfiture,  but  not  till  that  distant  day.  What 
has  he  done  ?  Has  he  maintained  his  own  charges  ?  Has  he  proved 
what  he  alleged  ?  Has  he  sustained  himself  in  his  attack  on  the 
government  and  on  the  history  of  the  North,  in  the  matter  of  the 
public  lands  ?  Has  he  disproved  a  fact,  refuted  a  proposition, 
weakened  an  argument  maintained  by  me  ?  Has  he  come  within 
beat  of  drum  of  any  position  of  mine  ?  Oh,  no ;  but  he  has  "  car- 
ried the  war  into  the  enemy's  country."  Yes,  sir,  and  what  sort  of 
a  war  has  he  made  of  it  ?  Why,  sir,  he  has  stretched  a  dragnet 
over  the  whole  surface  of  perished  pamphlets,  indiscreet  sermons, 
frothy  paragraphs,  and  fuming  popular  addresses ;  over  whatever 
the  pulpit,  in  its  moments  of  alarm,  the  press  in  its  heat,  and 
parties  in  their  extravagance  have  severally  thrown  off  in  times  of 
general  excitement  and  violence. 

Mr.  President,  in  carrying  his  warfare,  such  as  it  was,  into  New 
England,  the  honorable  gentleman  all  along  professes  to  be  acting 
on  the  defensive.  He  elects  to  consider  me  as  having  assailed 
South  Carolina,  and  insists  that  he  comes  forth  only  as  her  champion 
and  in  her  defense.  Sir,  I  do  not  admit  that  I  made  any  attack 
whatever  on  South  Carolina.  Nothing  like  it.  If  he  means  that 
I  spoke  with  dissatisfaction  or  disrespect  of  the  ebullitions  of  in- 
dividuals in  South  Carolina,  it  is  true.  But  if  he  means  that  I  as- 
sailed the  character  of  the  state,  her  honor  or  patriotism ;  that  I 
had  reflected  on  her  history  or  her  conduct,  he  had  not  the  slightest 
ground  for  any  such  assumption.  I  did  not  even  refer,  I  think,  in 
my  observations,  to  any  collection  of  individuals.  I  said  nothing 
of  the  recent  conventions.  I  spoke  in  the  most  guarded  and  care- 
ful manner,  and  only  expressed  my  regret  for  the  publication  of 
opinions  which  I  presumed  the  honorable  member  disapproved  as 
much  as  myself.  The  eulogium  pronounced  upon  the  character 
of  the  state  of  South  Carolina  by  the  honorable  gentleman  for  her 
revolutionary  and  other  merits  meets  my  hearty  concurrence. 


DANIEL  WEBSTER  233 

I  shall  not  acknowledge  that  the  honorable  member  goes  before 
me  in  regard  for  whatever  of  distinguished  talent  or  distinguished 
character  South  Carolina  has  produced.  I  claim  part  of  the  honor, 
I  partake  in  the  pride,  of  her  great  names.  I  claim  them  for  coun- 
trymen, one  and  all ;  the  Laurenses,  the  Rutledges,  the  Pinckneys, 
the  Sumters,  the  Marions  —  Americans  all,  whose  fame  is  no  more 
to  be  hemmed  in  by  state  lines  than  their  talents  and  patriotism 
were  capable  of  being  circumscribed  within  the  same  narrow  limits. 
In  their  day  and  generation  they  served  and  honored  the  country, 
and  the  whole  country  ;  and  their  renown  is  of  the  treasures  of  the 
whole  country.  Him  whose  honored  name  the  gentleman  himself 
bears,  does  he  esteem  me  less  capable  of  gratitude  for  his  pa- 
triotism, or  sympathy  for  his  sufferings,  than  if  his  eyes  had  first 
opened  upon  the  light  of  Massachusetts  instead  of  South  Carolina? 
Sir,  does  he  suppose  it  in  his  power  to  exhibit  a  Carolina  name  so 
bright  as  to  produce  envy  in  my  bosom  ? 

No,  sir,  increased  gratification  and  delight,  rather.  I  thank  God 
that  if  I  am  gifted  with  little  of  the  spirit  which  is  able  to  raise 
mortals  to  the  skies,  I  have  yet  none,  as  I  trust,  of  that  other  spirit 
which  would  drag  angels  down.  When  I  shall"  be  found,  sir,  in 
my  place  here  in  the  Senate,  or  elsewhere,  to  sneer  at  public  merit 
because  it  happens  to  spring  up  beyond  the  little  limits  of  my  own 
state  or  neighborhood ;  when  I  refuse,  for  any  such  cause,  or  for 
any  cause,  the  homage  due  to  American  talent,  to  elevated  patriot- 
ism, to  sincere  devotion  to  liberty  and  the  country ;  or  if  I  see  an 
uncommon  endowment  of  heaven,  if  I  see  extraordinary  capacity 
and  virtue  in  any  son  of  the  South,  and  if,  moved  by  local  preju- 
dice or  gangrened  by  state  jealousy,  I  get  up  here  to  abate  the 
tithe  of  a  hair  from  his  just  character  and  just  fame,  may  my  tongue 
cleave  to  the  roof  of  my  mouth ! 

Sir,  let  me  recur  to  pleasing  recollections ;  let  me  indulge  in  re- 
freshing remembrance  of  the  past ;  let  me  remind  you  that,  in  early 
times,  no  states  cherished  greater  harmony,  both  of  principle  and 
feeling,  than  Massachusetts  and  South  Carolina.  Would  to  God  that 
harmony  might  again  return !  Shoulder  to  shoulder  they  went  through 


234  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

the  Revolution  ;  hand  in  hand  they  stood  round  the  administration 
of  Washington,  and  felt  his  own  great  arm  lean  on  them  for  support. 
Unkind  feeling,  if  it  exist,  alienation,  and  distrust  are  the  growth, 
unnatural  to  such  soils,  of  false  principles  since  sown.  They  are 
weeds,  the  seeds  of  which  that  same  great  arm  never  scattered. 

Mr.  President,  I  shall  enter  on  no  encomium  upon  Massachu- 
setts ;  she  needs  none.  There  she  is ;  behold  her,  and  judge  for 
yourselves.  There  is  her  history ;  the  world  knows  it  by  heart. 
The  past,  at  le^st,  is  secure.  There  is  Boston,  and  Concord,  and 
Lexington,  and  Bunker  Hill ;  and  there  they  will  remain  forever. 
The  bones  of  her  sons,  falling  in  the  great  struggle  for  independ- 
ence, now  lie  mingled  with  the  soil  of  every  state  from  New  Eng- 
land to  Georgia ;  and  there  they  will  lie  forever.  And,  sir,  where 
American  Liberty  raised  its  first  voice,  and  where  its  youth  was 
nurtured  and  sustained,  there  it  still  lives,  in  the  strength  of  its 
manhood  and  full  of  its  original  spirit.  If  discord  and  disunion 
shall  wound  it ;  if  party  strife  and  blind  ambition  shall  hawk  at 
and  tear  it ;  if  folly  and  madness,  if  uneasiness  under  salutary  and 
necessary  restraint,  shall  succeed  in  separating  it  from  that  Union 
by  which  alone  its  'existence  is  made  sure  ;  it  will  stand,  in  the  end, 
by  the  side  of  that  cradle  in  which  its  infancy  was  rocked ;  it  will 
stretch  forth  its  arm,  with  whatever  of  vigor  it  may  still  retain, 
over  the  friends  who  gather  round  it ;  and  it  will  fall  at  last,  if  fall 
it  must,  amidst  the  proudest  monuments  of  its  own  glory,  and  on 
the  very  spot  of  its  origin. 

III.  PRINCIPLES  OF  THE  CONSTITUTION 

Senator  Hayne  maintained  that  "in  case  of  a  plain,  palpable  violation  of 
the  Constitution  by  the  general  government,  a  state  may  interpose,  and  that 
this  interposition  is  cohstitutional."  Webster  meets  this  argument  as  follows. 

There  yet  remains  to  be  performed,  Mr.  President,  by  far  the 
most  grave  and  important  duty,  which  I  feel  to  be  devolved  on  me 
by  this  occasion.  It  is  to  state  and  to  defend  what  I  conceive  to 
be  the  true  principles  of  the  Constitution  under  which  we  are  here 


DANIEL  WEBSTER  235 

assembled.  I  understand  the  honorable  gentleman  from  South 
Carolina  to  maintain  that  it  is  a  right  of  the  state  legislatures  to 
interfere  whenever,  in  their  judgment,  this  government  transcends 
its  constitutional  limits,  and  to  arrest  the  operation  of  its  laws. 

I  understand  him  to  maintain  this  right,  as  a  right  existing 
under  the  Constitution,  not  as  a  right  to  overthrow  it  on  the  ground 
of  extreme  necessity,  such  as  would  justify  violent  revolution. 

I  understand  him  to  maintain  an  authority,  on  the  part  of  the 
states,  thus  to  interfere,  for  the  purpose  of  correcting  the  exercise 
of  power  by  the  general  government,  of  checking  it,  and  of  com- 
pelling it  to  conform  to  their  opinion  of  the  extent  of  its  powers. 

I  understand  him  to  maintain  that  the  ultimate  power  of  judging 
of  the  constitutional  extent  of  its  own  authority  is  not  lodged  exclu- 
sively in  the  general  government  or  any  branch  of  it;  but  that, 
on  the  contrary,  the  states  may  lawfully  decide  for  themselves,  and 
each  state  for  itself,  whether  in  a  given  case  the  act  of  the  general 
government  transcends  its  power. 

I  understand  him  to  insist  that  if  the  exigency  of  the  case,  in  the 
opinion  of  any  state  government,  require  it,  such  state  government 
may,  by  its  own  sovereign  authority,  annul  an  act  of  the  general 
government  which  it  deems  plainly  and  palpably  unconstitutional. 

This  is  the  sum  of  what  I  understand  from  him  to  be  the  South 
Carolina  doctrine,  and  the  doctrine  which  he  maintains.  I  propose 
to  consider  it  and  compare  it  with  the  Constitution.  Allow  me  to 
say  as  a  preliminary  remark  that  I  call  this  the  South  Carolina 
doctrine  only  because  the  gentleman  himself  has  so  denominated 
it.  I  do  not  feel  at  liberty  to  say  that  South  Carolina,  as  a  state, 
has  ever  advanced  these  sentiments.  I  hope  she  has  not  and  never 
may.  That  a  great  majority  of  her  people  are  opposed  to  the  tariff 
laws  is  doubtless  true.  That  a  majority  somewhat  less  than  that 
just  mentioned  conscientiously  believe  these  laws  unconstitutional 
may  probably  also  be  true.  But  that  any  majority  holds  to  the 
right  of  direct  state  interference,  at  state  discretion,  —  the  right  of 
nullifying  acts  of  Congress  by  acts  of  state  legislation,  —  is  more 
than  I  know,  and  what  I  shall  be  slow  to  believe. 


236  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

The  great  question  is,  Whose  prerogative  is  it  to  decide  on  the 
constitutionality  or  unconstitutionality  of  the  laws  ?  On  that  the 
main  debate  hinges.  The  proposition  that,  in  case  of  a  supposed 
violation  of  the  Constitution  by  Congress,  the  states  have  a  consti- 
tutional right  to  interfere  and  annul  the  law  of  Congress,  is  the 
proposition  of  the  gentleman  ;  I  do  not  admit  it.  If  the  gentleman 
had  intended  no  more  than  to  assert  the  right  of  revolution  for 
justifiable  cause,  he  would  have  said  only  what  all  agree  to.  But  I 
cannot  conceive  that  there  can  be  a  middle  course  between  sub- 
mission to  the  laws,  when  regularly  pronounced  constitutional  on 
the  one  hand,  and  open  resistance,  which  is  revolution  or  rebellion, 
on  the  other.  I  say  the  right  of  a  state  to  annul  a  law  of  Congress 
cannot  be  maintained  but  on  the  ground  of  the  unalienable  right 
of  man  to  resist  oppression ;  that  is  to  say,  upon  the  ground  of 
revolution.  I  admit  that  there  is  an  ultimate  violent  remedy  above 
the  Constitution  and  in  defiance  of  the  Constitution,  which  may  be 
resorted  to  when  a  revolution  is  to  be  justified.  But  Itlo  not  admit 
that  under  the  Constitution,  and  in  conformity  with  it,  there  is  any 
mode  in  which  a  state  government,  as  a  member  of  the  Union,  can 
interfere  and  stop  the  progress  of  the  general  government,  by 
force  of  her  own  laws,  under  any  circumstances  whatever. 

This  leads  us  to  inquire  into  the  origin  of  this  government  and 
the  source  of  its  power.  Whose  agent  is  it  ?  Is  it  the  creature  of 
the  state  legislatures,  or  the  creature  of  the  people  ?  If  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  be  the  agent  of  the  state  governments, 
then  they  may  control  it,  provided  they  can  agree  in  the  manner 
of  controlling  it ;  if  it  be  the  agent  of  the  people,  then  the  people 
alone  can  control  it,  restrain  it,  modify,  or  reform  it.  It  is  observ- 
able enough  that  the  doctrine  for  which  the  honorable  gentleman 
contends  leads  him  to  the  necessity  of  maintaining  not  only  that 
this  general  government  is  the  creature  of  the  states,  but  that  it 
is  the  creature  of  each  of  the  states  severally,  so  that  each  may 
assert  the  power  for  itself  of  determining  whether  it  acts  within  the 
limits  of  its  authority.  It  is  the  servant  of  four  and  twenty  masters, 
of  different  wills  and  different  purposes,  and  yet  bound  to  obey  all. 


DANIEL  WEBSTER  237 

This  absurdity,  for  it  seems  no  less,  arises  from  a  misconception 
as  to  the  origin  of  this  government  and  its  true  character.  It  is, 
sir,  the  people's  Constitution,  the  people's  government ;  made  for 
the  people,  made  by  the  people,  and  answerable  to  the  people. 
The  people  of  the  United  States  have  declared  that  this  Consti- 
tution shall  be  the  supreme  law.  We  must  either  admit  the  propo- 
sition or  dispute  their  authority.  The  states  are,  unquestionably, 
sovereign,  so  far  as  their  sovereignty  is  not  affected  by  this  supreme 
law.  But  the  state  legislatures,  as  political  bodies,  however  sover- 
eign, are  yet  not  sovereign  over  the  people.  We  are  all  agents  of 
the  same  supreme  power,  the  people. 

I  ask  the  gentleman,  therefore,  to  come  forth  and  declare 
whether,  in  his  opinion,  the  New  England  States  would  have  been 
justified  in  interfering  to  break  up  the  embargo  system  under  the 
conscientious  opinions  which  they  held  upon  it  ?  Had  they  a  right 
to  annul  that  law  ?  Does  he  admit,  or  deny  ?  If  that  which  is 
thought  palpably  unconstitutional  in  South  Carolina  justifies  that 
state  in  arresting  the  progress  of  the  law,  tell  me  whether  that 
which  was  thought  palpably  unconstitutional  also  in  Massachusetts 
would  have  justified  her  in  doing  the  same  thing  ?  Sir,  I  deny  the 
whole  doctrine.  It  has  not  a  foot  of  ground  in  the  Constitution  to 
stand  on.  No  public  man  of  reputation  ever  advanced  it  in  Massa- 
chusetts, in  the  warmest  times,  or  could  maintain  himself  upon  it 
there  at  any  time.  Sir,  I  deny  this  power  of  state  legislatures 
altogether.  It  cannot  stand  the  test  of  examination.  In  maintaining 
these  sentiments,  sir,  I  am  but  asserting  the  rights  of  the  people. 
I  state  what  they  have  declared,  and  insist  on  their  right  to  de- 
clare it.  They  have  chosen  to  repose  this  power  in  the  general 
government,  and  I  think  it  my  duty  to  support  it,  like  other  con- 
stitutional powers. 

For  myself,  sir,  I  do  not  admit  the  jurisdiction  of  South  Carolina, 
or  any  other  state,  to  prescribe  my  constitutional  duty ;  or  to  setde, 
between  me  and  the  people,  the  validity  of  laws  of  Congress  for 
which  I  have  voted.  I  decline  her  umpirage.  I  have  not  sworn  to 
support  the  Constitution  according  to  her  construction  of  its  clauses. 


238  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

I  have  not  stipulated  by  my  oath  of  office,  or  otherwise,  to  come 
under  any  responsibility  except  to  the  people  and  those  whom  they 
have  appointed  to  pass  upon  the  question  whether  laws,  supported 
by  my  votes,  conform  to  the  Constitution  of  the  country.  And,  sir, 
if. we  look  to  the  general  nature  of  the  case,  could  anything  have 
been  more  preposterous  than  to  make  a  government  for  the  whole 
Union,  and  yet  leave  its  powers  subject,  not  to  one  interpretation, 
but  to  thirteen  or  twenty-four  interpretations  ?  Instead  of  one  tri- 
bunal, established  by  all,  responsible  to  all,  with  power  to  decide 
for  all,  shall  constitutional  questions  be  left  to  four-and-twenty 
popular  bodies,  each  -^t  liberty  to  decide  for  itself,  and  none  bound 
to  respect  the  decisions  of  others ;  and  each  at  liberty,  too,  to  give 
a  new  construction  on  every  new  election  of  its  own  members? 
Would  anything  with  such  a  principle  in  it,  or  rather  with  such  a 
destitution  of  all  principle,  be  fit  to  be  called  a  government?  No, 
sir.  It  should  not  be  denominated  a  Constitution.  It  should  be  called, 
rather,  a  collection  of  topics  for  everlasting  controversy  —  heads  of 
debate  for  a  disputatious  people.  It  would  not  be  a  government. 
It  would  not  be  adequate  to  any  practical  good,  nor  fit  for  any 
country  to  live  under. 

Now  I  wish  to  be  informed  how  this  state  interference  is  to  be 
put  in  practice  without  violence,  bloodshed,  and  rebellion.  We  will 
take  the  existing  case  of  the  tariff  law.  South  Carolina  is  said  to 
have  made  up  her  opinion  upon  it.  If  we  do  not  repeal  it,  as  we 
probably  shall  not,  she  will  then  apply  to  the  case  the  remedy  of 
her  doctrine.  She  will,  we  must  suppose,  pass  a  law  of  her  legis- 
lature declaring  the  several  acts  of  Congress,  usually  called  the 
tariff  laws,  null  and  void,  so  far  as  they  respect  South  Carolina  or 
the  citizens  thereof.  So  far  all  is  easy  enough.  But  the  collector 
at  Charleston  is  collecting  the  duties  imposed  by  these  tariff  laws ; 
he,  therefore,  must  be  stopped.  The  collector  will  seize  the  goods 
if  the  tariff  duties  are  not  paid.  The  state  authorities  will  under- 
take their  rescue ;  the  marshal  with  his  posse  will  come  to  the  col- 
lector's aid,  and  here  the  contest  begins.  The  militia  of  the  state 
will  be  called  out  to  sustain  the  nullifying  act. 


DANIEL  WEBSTER  239 

Direct  collision,  therefore,  between  force  and  force  is  the  un- 
avoidable result  of  that  remedy  for  the  revision  of  unconstitutional 
laws  which  the  gentleman  contends  for.  It  must  happen  in  the 
very  first  case  to  which  it  is  applied.  Is  not  this  the  plain  result  ? 
To  resist,  by  force,  the  execution  of  a  law  generally  is  treason. 
Can  the  courts  of  the  United  States  take  notice  of  the  indulgence 
of  a  state  to  commit  treason?  The  common  saying  that  a  State 
cannot  commit  treason  herself  is  nothing  to  the  purpose.  Can 
she  authorize  others  to  do  it?  Talk  about  it  as  we  will,  these 
doctrines  go  the  length  of  revolution.  They  are  incompatible 
with  any  peaceable  administration  of  the  government.  They  lead 
directly  to  disunion  and  civil  commotion ;  and  therefore  it  is  that 
at  their  commencement,  when  they  are  first  found  to  be  main- 
tained by  respectable  men,  and  in  a  tangible  form,  I  enter  my 
public  protest  against  them  all. 

IV.   LIBERTY  AND  UNION 

Webster  holds  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  is  alterable,  and 
that  it  will  remain  as  it  is  "  no  longer  than  the  people  who  established  it 
shall  choose  to  continue  it";  that  sovereignty  lies  with  the  people  and  not 
with  the  state  governments.  The  people  are  strongly  attached  to  the  Con- 
stitution. They  have  preserved  it  for  forty  years,  and  "  have  seen  their 
happiness,  prosperity,  and  renown  grow  with  its  growth  and  strengthen 
with  its  strength."  . 

Mr.  President,  I  have  thus  stated  the  reasons  of  my  dissent  to 
the  doctrines  which  have  been  advanced  and  maintained.  I  am 
conscious  of  having  detained  you'  and  the  Senate  much  too  long.  I 
was  drawn  into  the  debate  with  no  previous  deliberation  such  as  is 
suited  to  the  discussion  of  so  grave  and  important  a  subject.  But 
it  is  a  subject  of  which  my  heart  is  full,  and  I  have  not  been 
willing  to  suppress  the  utterance  of  its  spontaneous  sentiments.  I 
cannot,  even  now,  persuade  myself  to  relinquish  it  without  express- 
ing once  more  my  deep  conviction,  that  since  it  respects  nothing 
less  than  the  Union  of  the  states,  it  is  of  most  vital  and  essential 
importance  to  the  public  happiness. 


240  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

I  profess,  sir,  in  my  career  hitherto,  to  have  kept  steadily  in 
view  the  prosperity  and  honor  of  the  whole  country  and  the  pres- 
ervation of  our  federal  Union.  It  is  to  that  Union  we  owe  our 
safety  at  home  and  our  consideration  and  dignity  abroad.  It  is 
to  that  Union  that  we  are  chiefly  indebted  for  whatever  makes 
us  most  proud  of  our  country.  That  Union  we  reached  only  by 
the  discipline  of  our  virtues  in  the  severe  school  of  adversity.  It 
had  its  origin  in  the  necessities  of  disordered  finance,  prostrate 
commerce,  and  ruined  credit.  Under  its  benign  influence  these 
great  interests  immediately  awoke  as  from  the  dead  and  sprang 
forth  with  newness  of  life.  Every  year  of  its  duration  has  teemed 
with  fresh  proofs  of  its  utility  and  its  blessings ;  and,  although 
our  territory  has  stretched  out  wider  and  wider,  and  our  popula- 
tion spread  further  and  further,  they  have  not  outrun  its  pro- 
tection or  its  benefits.  It  has  been  to  us  all  a  copious  fountain 
of  national,  social,  and  personal  happiness.  I  have  not  allowed  my- 
self, sir,  to  look  beyond  the  Union  to  see  what  might  lie  hidden  in 
the  dark  recess  behind.  I  have  not  coolly  weighed  the  chances  of 
preserving  liberty  when  the  bonds  that  unite  us  together  shall  be 
broken  asunder.  I  have  not  accustomed  myself  to  hang  over  the 
precipice  of  disunion  to  see  whether,  with  my  short  sight,  I  can 
fathom  the  depth  of  the  abyss  below ;  nor  could  I  regard  him  as  a 
safe  counselor  in  the  affairs  of  this  government,  whose  thoughts 
should  be  mainly  bent  on  considering  jiot/how  the  Union  should 
be  best  preserved,  but  how  tolerable  might  be  the  condition  of  the 
people  when  it  shall  be  broken  up  and  destroyed. 

While  the  Union  lasts  we  have  high,  exciting,  gratifying  prospects 
spread  out  before  us,  for  us  and  our  children.  Beyond  that  I  seek 
not  to  penetrate  the  veil.  God  grant  that  in  my  day,  at  least,  that 
curtain  may  not  rise.'*^  God  grant  that,  on  my  vision,  never  may  be 
opened  what  lies  behind.  When  my  eyes  shall  be  turned  to  behold, 
for  the  last  time,  the  sun  in  heaven,  may  I  not  see  him  shining  on 
the  broken  and  dishonored  fragments  of  a  once  glorious  Union  ;  on 
states  dissevered,  discordant,  belligerent ;  on  a  land  rent  with  civil 
feuds,  or  drenched,  it  may  be,  in  fraternal  blood !    Let  their  last 


DANIEL  WEBSTER  241 

feeble  and  lingering  glance  rather  behold  the  gorgeous  ensign  of  the 
Republic,  now  known  and  honored  throughout  the  earth,  still  full 
high  advanced,  its  arms  and  trophies  streaming  in  their  original 
luster,  not  a  stripe  erased  or  polluted,  nor  a  single  star  obscured, 
bearing  for  its  motto  no  such  miserable  interrogatory  as,  ''  What  is 
all  this  worth  ? "  nor  those  other  words  of  delusion  and  folly, 
"Liberty  first  and  union  afterwards";  but  everywhere,  spread 
all  over  in  characters  of  living  light,  blazing  on  all  its  ample  folds 
as  they  float  over  the  sea  and  over  the  land,  and  in  every  wind 
under  the  whole  heavens,  that  other  sentiment,  dear  to  every  true 
American  heart  —  Liberty  and  Union,  now  and  forever  one  and 
inseparable  1 


JOHN  C.  CALHOUN 


John  C.  Calhoun  (1782 -1850),  one  of  America's  most 
distinguished  statesmen,  came  of  Scotch-Irish  ancestry.  He 
was  born  and  brought  up  in  South  CaroUna,  which  hon- 
ored him  many  times  by 
electing  him  a  member 
of  one  of  the  houses  of 
Congress.  The  young  lad 
was  early  taught  to  rely  on 
his  own  resources,  and  it 
became  necessary  for  him 
to  provide  in  great  part 
for  his  own  education. 
He  was  fitted  for  col- 
lege under  private  tutors, 
and  entered  Yale  with  so 
much  advanced  standing 
as  to  enable  him  to  gradu- 
ate in  two  years.  During 
one  of  his  recitations  with 
President  Dwight  the  two 
took  up  almost  the  whole  hour  in  an  earnest  discussion  of 
some  political  question.  The  president  was  so  impressed  by 
his  strength  and  precocity  that  he  remarked  afterwards  to  a 
friend,  "  That  young  man  has  talent  enough  to  become  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States."  Following  his  graduation  from 
Yale  he  entered  upon  a  course  at  the  Litchfield  Law  School, 
and  after  completing  his  course  he  began  the  practice  of  law 
in  his  native  state. 

242 


JOHN  C  CALHOUN  243 

But  Calhoun  was  not  long  to  remain  in  active  practice; 
His  skill  in  law  and  his  interest  in  legislation  were  to  be  em- 
ployed for  his  native  commonwealth.  Within  nine  years  of 
the  time  he  began  the  practice  of  law  he  had  served  in  the 
state  legislature  and  been  elected  to  a  seat  in  Congress,  and 
not  until  his  death  did  he  relinquish  public  service,  having 
served  as  representative,  as  senator,  as  cabinet  officer,  and 
as  Vice  President. 

Personally  he  was  striking  in  appearance,  tall,  erect,  slender, 
with  a  severe  countenance,  features  harsh  and  angular,  hawk- 
like eyes,  beetling  brows,  and  a  full  head  of  bristling,  iron- 
gray  hair.  His  voice  was  somewhat  harsh,  his  gestures  were 
stiff,  and  he  lacked  the  ease  and  charm  of  manner  comm 
with  public  men  of  the  South. 

In  character  he  was  irreproachable.  No  one  ever  questioned 
his  sincerity.  There  was  no  concealment  or  pretense  on  his 
part,  but  unfailing  devotion  to  his  every  conviction.  His 
uprightness  of  character  and  his  constant  course  in  what  he 
believed  to  be  the  right  gave  him  great  influence  in  the  coun- 
cils of  the  nation.  His  firmness,  his  determination  to  carry 
forward  his  theories  of  government,  and  his  ability  in  hold- 
ing his  followers  to  his  purpose  gave  him  the  sobriquet  of 
the  "  Cast-iron  Man." 

But  how  did  Calhoun  gain  this  quality  of  persuasiveness 
and  leadership  ?  The  first  element  was  his  thoroughness  of 
preparation.  He  strove  to  find  the  truth,  the  exact  truth,  and 
as  much  of  it  as  possible.  His  superior  knowledge,  his  pre- 
paredness, inspired  others  to  confide  in  him  and  follow  him. 
His  power  of  analysis  was  his  leading  faculty.  Intense  as  a 
student  in  college,  his  powers  of  concentration  were  enhanced 
by  his  work  as  a  statesman.  His  habit  of  reasoning  enabled 
him  to  reach  with  alertness  and  accuracy  conclusions  which 
others  had  to  go  through  a  more  laborious  process  to  find  out. 


244  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

He  cultivated  this  prime  gift  of  oratory  in  the  Hterary  societies 

at  Yale  and  the  Litchfield  Law  School.    Questions  of  public 

interest  were  debated  with  great  energy  and  persistency.    He 

thus  gained  the  ability  to   reason  consistently  and   discuss 

questions  with  calmness  and  judgment.    Plain  and  direct  in 

manner,  he  sought  above  all  to  bcAinderstood  and  to  impress 

yhis"  thoughtr^olloquial  in  style,*^  cared  little  for  grace  and 

jj  polish.  Rigidly  intellectual,  intensely  logical,  chaste  in  expres- 

j    sion,  there  was  more  of  the  sap  and  juiciness  of  thought 

/    than  of  the  poetry  and  splendor  of  eloquence.    He  gathered 

statistics  to  support  and  work  up  his  theories  of  government. 

His   preparation  of  material  was   complete.     Unceasing  in 

mental  activity  and  in  his  endeavor  to  be  lucid  and  to  gain 

adherents  to  his  ideas  of  public  policy,  he  often  overreached 

himself  .and  became  the  hairsplitter  in  argument. 

The  most  striking  feature  of  his  oratory  was  his  earnestness. 
It  enabled  him  to  sway  the  feelings  of  men  and  control  their 
action.  His  enunciation  was  incisive,  his  delivery  rapid,  his 
look  piercing,  his  voice  shrill  and  loud  and  not  well  modulated ; 
his  bearing,  his  looks,  and  his  impetuosity  riveted  attention 
and  awed  into  acquiescence.  His  attack  was, fierce,  blunt,  and 
terrible,  his  sentences  short  and  incisive/He  seems  to  have 
made  Demosthenes  his  model,  for  his  style  bears  repeated 
evidence  of  severe  study  of  the  orations  of  the  great  Athenian. 
Von  Hoist  says  of  his  oratory  :  ''  He  did  not  speak  with  arro- 
gance, and  still  less  was  there  anything  personally  offensive 
in  what  he  said,  or  in  the  manner  in  which  he  said  it.  .  .  . 
He  observed  the  parliamentary  proprieties  with  the  rigor  and 
naturalness  of  the  born  gentleman,  and  always  attacked  the 
argument  of  his  adversary  and  not  his  person." 

aniel  Webster,  who  had  so  often  clashed  with  Calhoun  in 
debate  and  who  found  it  more  difficult  to  cope  with  him  than 
with  any  other  antagonist,  thus  spoke  in  praise  of  Calhoun's 


JOHN  C.  CALHOUN  245 

wonderful  gifts  as  an  orator  :  "  The  eloquence  of  Calhoun  was 
part  of  his  intellectual  character.  ...  It  was  plain,  strong, 
terse,  condensed,  concise,  sometimes  impassioned,  still  always 
severe.  His  power  consisted  in  the  plainness  of  his  proposi- 
tions, in  the  closeness  of  his  logic,  and  in  the  earnestness 
and  energy  of  his  manner.  .  .  .  He  had  the  basis,  the  indis- 
.  pensable  basis,  of  all  high  character,  and  that  was  unspotted 
mtegrity,  unimpeached  honor  and  character." 

Professor  Sears  says  :  ''  Calhoun  is  an  orator  who  cannot 
be  overlooked  in  any  account  of  American  oratory.  His  mind 
was  of  the  order  that  belongs  preeminently  to  statecraft.  He 
made  great  speeches,  but  they  .were  great  in  the  closeness  of 
their  reasoning  and  the  plainness  of  their  propositions,  coupled 
at  times  with  an  impassioned  delivery,  oftener  with  a  severity 
and  dignity  of  manner  which  men  respected,  but  over  which 
they  did  not  go  wild  with  enthusiasm  nor  drift  far  from  their 
well-formed  judgments."  .^ 

'^     Mathews,  in  comparing  the  oratory  of  Clay  and  Calhoun, 
W  says:  ''Clay's  words  when  assailing  an  enemy  were  usually 
/^  courteous  and  polished,  while  Calhoun's  were  fierce,  blunt, 
\  and  rudely  terrible.    The  one  hit  his  man  with  a  keen  rapier, 
like  a  courtier  of  the  old  regime ;  the  other  knocked  him 
down  with  a  sledge  hammer,  like  a  Scandinavian  giant.  Clay 
allows  you  to  die,  like  Lord  Chester,  in  a  becoming  attitude, 
while  Calhoun  breaks  your  bones  and  leaves  you  sprawling  on 
the  floor.    The  one  stabs  you  with  a  smile,  the  other  smashes 
you  with  a  frown.    Clay  is  even  more  dangerous  than  Calhoun, 
as  the  graceful  leopard  is,  perhaps,  an  antagonist  more  to  be 
feared  than  the  grizzly  bear." 

Some  of  his  great  speeches  are  ,"  The  War  with  England" 
(181 1),  "The  Tariff  Bill"  (1816),  "The  Force  Bill"  (1832), 
"Incendiary  Publications"  (1836),  "Abolition  Petitions" 
(1837),  "The  Oregon  Question"  (1846),  "Slavery"  (1850). 


246  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 


COMPROMISE  MEASURES 

This  speech  was  prepared  by  Calhoun  for  the  session  of  the  Senate  of 
March  4,  1850.  But  as  he  was  too  ill  to  deliver  it,  another  senator  read  it, 
Calhoun  himself  being  present.  The  senator  from  South  Carolina  sat  pale 
and  emaciated  and  listened  intently  to  his  own  words.  The  historian,  Von 
Hoist,  speaks  of  this  as  an  "  extraordinary  scene,  which  had  something  of 
the  impressive  solemnity  of  a  funeral  ceremony  "  ;  and  adds  that,  when  the 
Senate  adjourned,  Calhoun,  "  supported  on  the  shoulders  of  two  of  his 
friends,  tottered  out  of  the  Senate  chamber,"  never  to  return.  Less  than  a 
month  saw  the  end  of  the  distinguished  senator. 

I.    SLAVERY  AND   DISUNION 

Mr.  Calhoun  urges  that  the  rapid  increase  of  the  senators  and  repre- 
sentatives from  the  North,  on  account  of  the  growing  population  in  that 
section,  gives  predominance  to  the  North,  disturbs  the  equilibrium  of  gov- 
ernment, and  therefore  endangers  the  tranquillity  of  the  Union  by  center- 
ing power  in  a  sectional  majority. 

I  have,  senators,  believed  from  the  first  that  the  agitation  of  the 
subject  of  slavery  would,  if  not  prevented  by  some  timely  and 
effective  measure,  end  in  disunion.  Entertaining  this  opinion,  I 
have,  on  all  proper  occasions,  endeavored  to  call  the  attention  of 
both  the  two  great  parties  which  divide  the  country,  to  adopt  some 
measure  to  prevent  so  great  a  disaster,  but  without  success.  The 
agitation  has  been  permitted  to  proceed  with  almost  no  attempt  to 
resist  it,  until  it  has  reached  a  point  when  it  can  no  longer  be  dis- 
guised or  denied  that  the  Union  is  in  danger.  You  have  thus  had 
forced  upon  you  the  greatest  and  gravest  question  that  can  ever 
come  under  your  consideration  :   How  can  the  Union  be  preserved  ? 

To  give  a  satisfactory  answer  to  this  mighty  question,  it  is  in- 
dispensable to  have  an  accurate  and  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
nature  and  the  character  of  the  cause  by  which  the  Union  is  en- 
dangered, Without  such  knowledge  it  is  impossible  to  pronounce 
with  any  certainty  by  what  measure  it  can  be  saved ;  just  as  it 
would  be  impossible  for  a  physician  to  pronounce  in  the  case  of 
some  dangerous  disease,  with  any  certainty,  by  what  remedy  the 
patient  could  be  saved,  without  similar  knowledge  of  the  nature 


JOHN  C.  CALHOUN  247 

and  character  of  the  cause  which  produced  it.  The  first  question, 
then,  presented  for  consideration  in  the  investigation  I  propose  to 
make  in  order  to  obtain  such  knowledge  is,  What  is  it  that  has 
endangered  the  Union  ? 

To  this  question  there  can  be  but  one  answer — -that__theim- /^ 
medjate  cause  is  the  almost  universal  .diaconterit  which  pervades 
all  the  states  com posing_the__ southern  section  of  the  LlniQa.  This 
widely  "extended  discontent  is  not  of  recent  origin.  It  commenced 
with  the  agitation  of  the  slavery  question  and  has  been  increasing 
ever  since.  The  next  question,  going  one  step  further  back,  is,  What 
has  caused  this  widely  diffused  and  almost  universal  discontent } 

It  is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose,  as  is  by  some,  that  it  originated 
with  demagogues  who  excited  the  discontent  with  the  intention  of 
aiding  their  personal  advancement,  or  with  the  disappointed  ambi- 
tion of  certain  politicians  who  resorted  to  it  as  the  means  of  re- 
trieving their  fortunes.  On  the  contrary,  all  the  great  political 
influences  of  the  section  were  arrayed  against  excitement,  and 
exerted  to  the  utmost, to  keep  the  people  quiet.  The  great  mass 
of  the  people  of  the  South  were  divided,  as  in  the  other  section, 
into  Whigs  and  Democrats.  The  leaders  and  the  presses  of  both 
parties  in  the  South  were  very  solicitous  to  prevent  excitement 
and  to  preserve  quiet ;  because  it  was  seen  that  the  effects  of 
the  former  would  necessarily  tend  to  weaken,  if  not  destroy,  the 
political  ties  which  united  them  with  their  respective  parties  in  the 
other  section. 

Those  who  know  the  strength  of  party  ties  will  readily  appre- 
ciate the  immense  force  which  this  cause  exerted  against  agitation 
and  in  favor  of  preserving  quiet.  But,  great  as  it  was,  it  was  not 
sufficient  to  prevent  the  widespread  discontent  which  now  pervades 
the  section. 

No,  some  cause  far  deeper  and  more  powerful  than  the  one 
supposed  must  exist,  to  account  for  discontent  so  wide  and  deep. 
The  question  then  recurs.  What  is  the  cause  of  this  discontent  ?  It 
will  be  found  in  the  belief  of  the  people  of  the  Southern  states,  as 
prevalent  as  the  discontent  itself,  that  they  cannot  remain,  as  things 


248  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

now  are,  consistently  with  honor  anH  safety,  in  the  .Union.  The 
next  question  to  be  considered  is,  What  has  caused  this  belief? 

One  of  the  causes  is  undoubtedly  to  be  traced  to  the  long- 
continued  agitation  of  the  slave  question  on  the  part  of  the  North, 
and  the  many  aggressions  which  they  have  made  on  the  rights  of 
the  South  during  the  time.  I  will  not  enumerate  them  at  present, 
as  it  will  be  done  hereafter  in  its  proper  place. 

There  is  another  lying  back  of  it  —  with  which  this  is  intimately 
connected  —  that  may  be  regarded  asjhe  great  and  primary  cause. 
'This  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  equilibrium  between  the 
two  sections  in  tEFgovernment  as  it  stood  when  the  Constitution 
was  ratified  and  the  government  put  in  action  has  been  destroyed. 
At  that  time  there  was  nearly  a  perfect  equilibrium  between  the  two, 
which  afforded  ample  means  to  each  to  protect  itself  against  the 
aggression  of  the  other ;  but,  as  it  now  stands,  one  section  has 
the  exclusive  power  of  controlling  the  government,  which  leaves 
the  other  without  any  adequate  means  of  protecting  itself  against 
its  encroachment  and  oppression. 

The  result  of  the  whole  is  to  give^the  Northern  section  a  pre- 
dominance in  every  department  of  the  government,  and  thereby 
concentrate  in  it  the  two  elements  which  constitute  the  federal  gov- 
ernment—  a  majority  of  states,  and  a  majority  of  their  popula- 
tion, estimated  in  federal  numbers.  Whatever  section  concentrates 
the  two  in  itself  possesses  the  control  of  the  entire  government. 
This  great  increase  of  senators,  added  to  the  great  increase  of 
members  of  the  House  of  Representatives  and  the  Electoral  Col- 
lege on  the  part  of  the  North,  which  must  take  place  within  the 
next  decade,  will  effectually  and  irretrievably  destroy  the  equilib- 
rium which  existed  when  the  government  commenced. 

Had  this  destruction  been  the  operation  of  time  without  the 
interference  of  government,  the  South  would  have  had  no  reason 
to  complain ;  but  such  was  not  the  fact.  It  was  caused  by  the 
legislation  of  this  government,  which  was  appointed  as  the  com- 
mon agent  of  all  and  charged  with  the  protection  of  the  interests 
and  security  of  all. 


h^^  fiO^  7OHN  C  CALHOUN  249 

Tlie  legisLation  by  which  it  has  been  effected  may  be  classed 
under  three  heads  :  The  first  is  that  series  of  acts  by  which  the  South 

/  has  been  excluded  from  the  common  territory  belonging  to  all  the 
States  as  members  of  the  federal  Union  —  which  have  had  the 
effect  of  extending  vastly  the  portion  allotted  to  the  Northern  sec- 
tion, and  restricting  within  narrow  limits  the  portion  left  the  South. 
The  next  consists  in  adopting  a  system  of  revenue  and  disburse- 
ments by  which  an  undue  proportion  of  the  burden  of  taxation  has 
been  imposed  upon  the  South,  and  an  undue  proportion  of  its 
proceeds  appropriated  to  the  North.  And  the  last  is  a  system  of 
political  measures  by  which  the  original  character  of  the  govern- 
ment has  been  radically  changed,  it  is  owing  to  the  action  of  this 
government  that  the  equilibrium  between  the  two  sections  has 

.^     been  destroyed,  and  the  whole  powers  of  the  system  centered  in 

"^^  a  sectional  majority. 

X 

II.  ABOLITION  OR  SECESSION 

Mr.  Calhoun  declares  that  the  North  has  appropriated  about  three  *  \ 
fourths  of  the  newly  acquired  territory,  and  that  a  far  greater  portion  of 
the  revenue  has  been  disbursed  among  the  states  of  that  section  for  the 
benefit  of  the  manufacturing  interests.  This  has  attracted  immigrants  to 
the  Northern  states  and  has  led  to  the  rapid  increase  of  their  representation 
in  Congress.    This  has  disturbed  the  equilibrium  of  the  sections. 

Then  the  constant  agitation  of  the  slavery  question  has  disturbed  the 
relation  of  the  races  at  the  South  and  endangered  the  cordiality  of  the  two 
sections. 

There  is  a  question  of  vital  importance  to  the  Southern  section,  in 
reference  to  which  the  views  and  feelings  of  the  two  sections  are  as 
opposite  and  hostile  as  they  can  possibly  be.  I  refer  to  the  relation 
between  the  two  races  in  the  Southern  section,  which  constitutes  a 
vital  portion  of  her  social  organization.  Every  portion  of  the  North 
entertains  views  and  feelings  more  or  less  hostile  to  it.  Those  most 
)pposed  and  hostile  regard  it  as  a  sin,  and  consider  themselv^ 
under  the  most  sacred  obligation  to  use  every  effort  to  destroy  it. 

Indeed,  to  the  extent  that  they  conceive  that  they  have  power, 
they  regard  themselves  as  implicated  in  the  sin,  and  responsible  for 


250  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

not  suppressing  it  by  the  use  of  all  and  every  means.  Those  less 
opposed  and  hostile  regard  it  as  a  crime  —  an  offense  against 
humanity,  as  they  call  it,  and,  although  not  so  fanatical,  feel 
themselves  bound  to  use  all  efforts  to  effect  the  same  object; 
while  those  who  are  least  opposed  and  hostile  regard  it  as  a  blot 
and  a  stain  on  the  character  of  what  they  call  the  "  nation,"  and 
feel  themselves  accordingly  bound  to  give  it  no  countenance  or 
support.  On  the  contrary,  the  Southern  section  regards  the 
relation  as  one  which  cannot  be  destroyed  without  subjecting  the 
two  races  to  the  greatest  calamity,  and  the  section  to  poverty, 
desolation,  and  wretchedness ;  and  accordingly  they  feel  bound  by 
every  consideration  of  interest  and  safety  to  defend  it. 

Unless  something  decisive  is  done,  I  again  ask.  What  is  to  stop  this 
agitation  before  the  great  and  final  object  at  which  it  aims  —  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  the  states  —  is  consummated  ?  Is  it,  then,  not 
certain  that  if  something  is  not  done  to  arrest  it,  the  South  will  be 
forced  to  choose  between  abolition  and  secession  ?  Indeed,  as  events 
are  now  moving,  it  will  not  require  the  South  to  secede  in  order  to 
dissolve  the  Union.  Agitation  will  of  itself  effect  it,  of  which  its  past 
history  furnishes  abundant  proof  —  as  I  shall  next  proceed  to  show. 

It  is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  disunion  can  be  effected 
by  a  single  blow.  The  cords  which  bind  these  states  together  in 
one  common  Union  are  far  too  numerous  and  powerful  for  that. 
Disunion  must  be  the  work  of  time.  It  is  only  through  a  long 
process,  and  successively,  that  the  cords  can  be  snapped  until  the 
whole  fabric  falls  asunder.  Already  the  agitation  of  the  slavery 
question  has  snapped  some  of  the  most  important,  and  has  greatly 
eakened  all  the  others. 

the  agitation  goes  on,  the  same  force,  acting  with  increased 
intensity,  as  has  been  shown,  will  finally  snap  every  cord,  when 
nothing  will  be  left  to  hold  the  states  together  except  force.  But 
surely  that  can  with  no  propriety  of  language  be  called  a  Union 
when  the  only  means  by  which  the  weaker  is  held  connected  with 
the  stronger  portion  is  force.  ■  It  may,  indeed,  keep  them  connected, 
but  the  connection  will  partake  much  more  of  the  character  of 


JOHN   C  CALHOUN  25  I 

subjugation  on  the  part  of  the  weaker  to  the  stronger,  than  the 
union  of  free,  independent,  and  sovereign  states  in  one  confedera- 
tion, as  they  stood  in  the  early  stages  of  the  government,  and  which 
only  is  worthy  of  the  sacred  name  of  Union. 


HI.  PRESERVATION  OF  THE  UNION 

Mr.  Calhoun  urges  upon  the  North  to  concede  to  the  South  equal 
rights  in  the  newly  acquired  territory,  to  cease  the  slavery  agitation,  or 
permit  the  Southern  states  to  leave  the  Union  in  peace. 

Having  now,  senators,  explained  what  it  is  that  endangers  the 
Union,  and  traced  it  to  its  cause,  and  explained  its  nature  and 
character,  the  question  again  recurs,  How  can  the  Union  be  saved  ? 
To  this  I  answer,  there  is  but  one  way  by  which  it  can  be,  and  that 
is  by  adopting  such  measures  as  will  satisfy  the  states  belonging 
to  the  Southern  section  that  they  can  remain  in  the  Union  consist- 
ently with  their  honor  and  their  safety.  There  is,  again,  only  one 
way  by  which  this  can  be  effected,  and  that  is  by  removing  the 
causes  by  which  this  belief  has  been  produced.  Do  this,  and  dis- 
content will  cease,  harmony  and  kind  feelings  between  the  sections 
be  restored,  and  every  apprehension  of  danger  to  the  Union  re- 
moved. The  question  then  is,  How  can  this  be  done  ?  There  is 
but  one  way  by  which  it  can  with  any  certainty;  and  that  is  by 
a  full  and  final  settlement,  on  the  principle  of  justice,  of  all  the 
questions  at  issue  between  the  two  sections.  The  South  asks  for 
justice,  simple  justice,  and  less  she  ought  not  to  take.  She  has 
no  compromise  to  offer  but  the  Constitution,  and  no  concession  or 
surrender  to  make.  She  has  already  surrendered  so  much  that  she 
has  little  left  to  surrender.  Such  a  settlement  would  go  to  the  root 
of  the  evil,  and  remove  all  cause  of  discontent,  by  satisfying  the 
South  that  she  could  remain  honorably  and  safely  in  the  Union, 
and  thereby  restore  the  harmony  and  fraternal  feelings  between 
the  sections  which  existed  anterior  to  the  Missouri  agitation. 
Nothing  else  can,  with  any  certainty,  finally  and  forever  settle  the 
question  at  issue,  terminate  agitation,  and  save  the  Union. 


252  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

But  can  this  be  done  ?  Yes,  easily  ;  not  by  the  weaker  party,  for 
it  can  of  itself  do  nothing, — not  even  protect  itself, — but  by  the 
stronger.  The  North  has  only  to  will  it  to  accomplish  it  —  to  do  jus- 
tice by  conceding  to  the  South  an  equalright  inthieacquiredterritory, 
and  to  9o  hei^duFy  by  causing  the  stipulations  relative  to  fugitive  slaves 
to  be  faithfully  fulfilled,  to  cease  the  agitation  of  the  slave  question, 
and  to  provide  for  the  insertion  of  a  provision  in  the  Constitution, 
by  an  amendment,  which  will  restore  to  the  South,  in  substance,  the 
power  she  possessecTof  protecting  herself  before  the  equilibrium  be- 
tween the  sections  was  destroyed  by  the  action  of  this  government. 
There  will  be  no  difficulty  in  devising  such  a  provision  —  one  that 
will  protect  the  South,  and  which  at  the  same  time  will  improve  and 
strengthen  the  government  instead  of  impairing  and  weakening  it. 

But  will  the  North  agree  to  this  ?  It  is  for  her  to  answer  the 
question.  But,  I  will  say,  she  cannot  refuse  if  she  has  half  the 
love  of  the  Union  which  she  professes  to  have,  or  without  justly 
exposing  herself  to  the  charge  that  her  love  of  power  and  aggran- 
dizement is  far  greater  than  her  love  of  the  Union.  At  all  events, 
the  responsibility  of  saving  the  Union  rests  on  the  North,  and  not 
on  the  South.  The  South  cannot  save  it  by  any  act  of  hers,  and 
the  North  mayTave  it  without  any  sacrifice  whatever,  unless  to  do 
justice  and  to  perform  her  duties  under  the  Constitution  should  be 
regarded  by  her  as  a  sacrifice. 

It  is  time,  senators,  that  there  should  be  an  open  and  manly 
avowal  on  all  sides  as  to  what  is  intended  to  be  done.  If  the 
question  is  not  now  settled,  it  is  uncertain  whether  it  ever  can 
hereafter  be ;  and  we,  as  the  representatives  of  the  states  of  this 
Union  regarded  as  governments,  should  come  to  a  distinct  under- 
standing as  to  our  respective  views,  in  order  to  ascertain  whether 
the  great  questions  at  issue  can  be  settled  or  not.  If  you  who 
represent  the  stronger  portion  cannot  agree  to  settle  them  on  the 
broad  principle  of  justice  and  duty,  say  so' ;  and  let  the  states  we 
both  represent  agree  to  separate  and  part  in  peace. 

If  you  are  unwilling  we  should  part  in  peace,  tell  us  so  ;  and  we 
shall  know  what  to  do  when  you  reduce  the  question  to  submission 


JOHN   C.  CALHOUN  253 

or  resistance.  If  you  remain  silent,  you  will  compel  us  to  infer  by 
your  acts  what  you  intend.  In  that  case  California  will  become 
the  test  question.  If  you  admit  her  under  all  the  difficulties  that 
oppose  her  admission,  you  compel  us  to  infer  that  you  intend  to 
exclude  us  from  the  whole  of  the  acquired  territories,  with  the 
intention  of  destroying  irretrievably  the  equilibrium  between  the 
two  sections.  We  should  be  blind  not  to  perceive  in  that  case  that 
your  real  objects  are  power  and  aggrandizement,  and  infatuated 
not  to  act  accordingly. 

I  have  now,  senators,  done  my  duty  in  expressing  my  opinions 
fully,  freely,  and  candidly  on  this  solemn  occasion.  In  doing  so  I 
have  been  governed  by  the  motives  which  have  governed  me  in  all 
the  stages  of  the  agitation  of  the  slavery  question  since  its  com- 
mencement. I  have  exerted  myself  during  the  whole  period  to 
arrest  it,  with  the  intention  of  saving  the  Union  if  it  could  be 
done ;  and  if  it  could  not,  to  save  the  section  where  it  has  pleased 
Providence  to  cast  my  lot,  and  which  I  sincerely  believe  has  jus- 
tice and  the  Constitution  on  its  side.  Having  faithfully  done  my 
duty  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  both  to  the  Union  and  my  section, 
throughout  this  agitation,  I  shall  have  the  consolation,  let  what  will 
come,  that  I  am  free  from  all  responsibility. 


X 


RUFUS  CHOATE 


Rufus  Choate  (i  799-1 859),  the  foremost  forensic  orator  of 
America,  was  a  New  Englander  by  birth  and  an  American  in 
the  breadth  of  his  sympathies.    Few  men  of  his  time  were  his 

peers  in  scholarship  and 
culture.  He  was  prepared 
for  college  at  Hampton 
Academy  and  was  gradu- 
ated from  Dartmouth  Col- 
lege in  1 8 19.  He  began 
the  study  of  law  in  the 
Cambridge  Law  School, 
and  continued  his  course 
at  Washington  in  the 
office  and  under  the  tutor- 
ship of  William  Wirt,  a 
man  whose  reputation  at 
the  bar  is  hardly  inferior 
to  that  of  his  great  pu- 
pil, and  hardly  less  than 
that  of  Webster,  the  other 
member  of  the  great  trio 
of  American  forensic  ora- 
tors. The  examples  of  Pinckney,  Wirt,  and  Webster,  espe- 
cially the  brilliant  work  of  Webster  in  the  Dartmouth  College 
Case,  fired  Choate  with  a  desire  to  study  law. 

His  years  of  waiting  for  clients  after  he  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  were  years  of  acquisition.  Law,  ethics,  philosophy, 
and  history  were  his  favorite  studies.    He  was  also  fond  of 

254 


RUFUS  CHOATE  255 

the  classics  and  especially  of  authors  strong  in  imagination. 
Love  of  literature  was  a  passion  with  him.  Every  day  he 
would  find  some  time  to  read  from  a  favorite  author.  His 
imagination  was  so  developed  and  his  knowledge  of  men 
and  affairs  so  wide  that  in  his  speeches  one  may  find  pas- 
sages not  unworthy  of  Edmund  Burke.  Indeed  he  was  so 
fond  of  Burke  that  no  doubt  his  mind  and  the  character  of 
his  imagination  were  much  influenced  by  Burke's  style.  We 
can  well  believe  this  when  we  know  that  he  ranked  Burke 
along  with  Shakespeare,  Bacon,  and  Milton. 

Choate  was  a  thorough  student  of  expression.  For  vocal 
practice  he  read  aloud  daily.  This  gave  him  a  voice  of  sin- 
gular strength,  clearness,  and  sweetness.  Then  he  was  a 
tireless  translator  of  the  classics,  with  Tacitus  as  his  favorite 
author.  He  did  this  not  only  for  the  ideas  and  the  feeling 
that  came  from  his  reading,  but  for  the  strength  of  his  dic- 
tion and  the  enlargement  of  his  vocabulary.  Then  he  was  a 
great  student  of  the  dictionary  and  was  fond  of  using  large 
and  unusual  words.  A  judge  of  one  of  the  courts  before 
which  Choate  often  appeared  was  told  that  a  new  dictionary 
had  just  been  issued  with  several  thousand  new  words  in  it. 
"  In  heaven's  name,"  exclaimed  the  judge,  "  don't  let  Choate. 
get  hold  of  it."  Always  on  the  lookout  for  choice  phrases, 
he  stored  his  prodigious  memory  with  the  finest  passages  of 
literature,  which  he  would  interweave  into  his  speeches.  For 
the  purpose  of  cultivating  ideas  on  the  subjects  he  dealt  with, 
he  was  constantly  using  his  pen,  for  he  had  but  to  write  out  a 
proposition  and  it  was  by  that  process  fixed  in  his  mind.  His 
writing  was  also  done  for  the  purpose  of  getting  to  the  bottom 
of  things.  His  rule,  as  he  himself  states  it,  was,  "Always 
to  prepare,  investigate,  compose  a  speech,  pen  in  hand."  In 
the  court  room  he  always  had  a  pile  of  manuscript  before 
him  but  seldom  referred  to  it.    Sometimes  he  wrote  all  night 


256  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

before  facing  a  jury,  but  had  no  need  to  refer  to  his  papers, 
as  the  mere  writing  had  stamped  the  thoughts  upon  his  mind. 
The  written  words  were  so  interwoven  with  the  extemporized 
parts  that  it  was  not  apparent  to  the  audience,  and  hardly  to 
himself,  where  the  one  ended  and  the  other  began. 

Choate's  style  of  oratory  was  of  a  new  and  unique  variety 
—  fervid,  imaginative,  oriental  in  its  exuberance,  yet  charged 
with  thought  and  emotion.  His  diction  was  vivid,  even  gor- 
geous, with  a  multiplication  of  adjectives,  abundant  analogies, 
figures  and  flowers  of  fancy.  Many  of  his  sentences  were 
enormous  in  length,  sometimes  covering  two  i2mo  pages, 
and  often  so  complex  and  involved  that  it  was  difficult  for 
the  reporter  to  straighten  them  out.  Indeed  the  variety  of 
his  style,  the  singularity  of  his  diction,  his  Johnsonian  ver- 
boseness,  and  his  rapidity  of  utterance  made  it  impossible  for 
the  reporters  to  keep  up  with  him.  One  of  them,  who  had 
failed  utterly  in  his  efforts  to  follow  him,  sat  back  in  open- 
mouthed  wonderment  and  exclaimed,  ' '  Who  can  report 
chain  lightning!  " 

Notwithstanding  his  verboseness  and  the  largeness  of  his 
words,  there  was  a  stateliness  and  dignity  of  style  that  was 
attractive,  and  a  clearness  and  force  of  statement  that  left  no 
doubt  as  to  his  meaning.  He  showed  great  skill  in  the  ar- 
rangement of  his  points  and  in  the  cleverness  with  which  he 
met  unexpected  turns  in  the  opponent's  argument,  a  fact  that 
accounts  in  great  measure  for  his  remarkable  success  as  a 
lawyer.  His  kindness,  his  fairness,  and  courtesy  of  manner 
overcame  prejudice,  and  his  overflow  of  wit  and  humor,  story 
and  repartee,  and  his  oddities  of  manner  kept  his  jury  wide- 
awake and  susceptible  to  his  pleas. 

Joseph  Choate,  ex-ambassador  to  England,  and  his  kins- 
man and  pupil,  thus  writes  of  him  :  "  Many  of  his  character- 
istic utterances  have  become  proverbial,  and  the  flashing  of 


RUFUS   CHOATE  257 

his  wit,  the  play  of  his  fancy,  and  the  gorgeous  pictures  of 
his  imagination  are  the  constant  themes  of  reminiscence 
wherever  American  lawyers  assemble  for  social  converse. 
His  arguments,  so  far  as  they  have  been  preserved,  are  text- 
books in  the  profession.  His  splendid  and  blazing  intellect, 
fed  and  enriched  by  constant  study  of  the  best  thoughts  of 
the  great  minds  of  the  race,  his  all-persuasive  eloquence,  his 
teeming  and  radiant  imagination,  his  brilliant  and  sportive 
fancy,  his  prodigious  and  never-failing  memory,  and  his  play- 
ful wit  always  bursting  forth  with  irresistible  impulse,  have 
been  the  subjects  of  scores  of  essays  and  criticisms,  all  strug- 
gling with  the  vain  effort  to  describe  and  crystallize  the 
magical  charm  of  his  speech  and  his  influence." 

Not  only  was  his  diction  unique,  but  his  method  of  delivery 
was  sid  generis.  In  figure  he  was  tall,  erect,  and  lithe  —  an 
impressive  personality.  His  face  was  broad  and  deeply  fur- 
rowed ;  his  eyes  were  large,  dark,  and  lustrous,  startling  at 
times  in  their  glare.  His  hair  was  black  and  luxuriant,  and 
his  complexion  oriental  in  hue.  Though  he  delighted  to 
speak  as  well  as  audiences  delighted  to  hear,  yet  he  was  as 
restless  and  nervous  before  a  speech  as  a  race  horse  about  to 
be  set  off  in  a  race.  His  voice  was  wide  of  range  and  very 
musical,  now  gentle  and  low,  now  intense  in  a  whisper,  now 
like  the  blast  of  a  trumpet.  He  usually  began  speaking  in  a 
conversational  manner,  but  as  he  warmed  to  his  theme  his 
whole  manner  changed.  His  voice  took  a  higher  range  and 
a  greater  volume ;  he  gesticulated  with  his  whole  body ;  his 
long  arms  and  bony  fingers  were  in  constant  and  vehement 
action  to  enforce  his  points.  Mathews  says,  ''  Probably  no 
orator  ever  lived  who  threw  himself  with  more  energy  and 
utter  abandon  into  the  advocacy  of  a  cause."  He  watched 
his  jury  as  a  hawk  its  prey.  His  eye  and  the  tones  of  his 
voice  fascinated  them.     He  could  read  their  thoughts  and 


258  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

know  when  he  had  won  them,  and  would  not  close  his  argu- 
ment and  appeal  until  he  was  morally  certain  of  every  jury- 
man. Once  he  labored  three  hours  with  the  stubborn  foreman 
of  a  jury,  though  the  rest  had  been  won  long  before.  Often 
when  he  was  through  with  his  plea  he  was  so  exhausted  that 
he  had  to  be  assisted  to  his  carriage. 

His  arguments  before  the  court  were  calmer  than  those 
before  the  jury.  He  well  knew  that  the  arts  practiced  on  the 
average  juryman  were  not  suited  to  the  calm  judgment  of 
the  court.  A  contemporary  says  of  him,  ''His  was  a  new 
school  of  rhetoric,  oratory,  and  logic,  and  of  all  manner  of 
diverse  forces,  working  steadily,  irresistibly  in  one  direction 
to  accomplish  the  speaker's  purpose  and  object."  Regarding 
the  effect  of  his  oratory  not  only  in  court  but  in  Congress, 
the  story  is  related  of  a  Kentucky  representative  who  rose 
to  leave  the  House  as  Choate  began  to  speak,  but  lingered 
for  a  while  to  note  the  "  tone  of  his  voice  and  the  manner 
of  his  speech."  But  he  says  :  "  that  moment  was  fatal  to  my 
resolution.  I  became  charmed  by  the  music  of  his  voice  and 
was  captivated  by  the  power  of  his  eloquence,  and  found 
myself  wholly  unable  to  move  until  the  last  word  of  his 
beautiful  speech  had  been  uttered." 

If  success  at  the  bar  is  the  criterion  by  which  one  is  to  be 
judged  as  a  forensic  orator,  Choate  must  be  placed  in  the 
highest  rank.  His  record  as  a  winner  of  verdicts  is  unsur- 
passed. His  success  in  clearing  criminals  made  him  the 
subject  of  taunt  by  such  men  as  Wendell  Phillips,  who  once 
said  of  him,  "  Thieves  inquired  into  the  state  of  his  health 
before  they  began  to  steal."  But  it  cannot  be  denied  that 
his  skill  in  setting  forth  the  facts  in  a  case  and  in  expound- 
ing the  law,  his  unique,  original,  and  powerful  method  of 
expression,  his  abundant  illustrations  and  marvelous  fancy, 
place  him  quite  alone  in  the  field  of  forensic  orators.    His 


RUFUS   CHOATE  259 

rise  was  rapid,  and  had  not  his  love  of  his  profession  kept 
him  close  to  his  work,  he  might  have  held  a  distinguished 
place  in  statesmanship.  Devoted  to  his  business,  he  shunned 
politics,  and  though  active  in  public  affairs,  and  repeatedly 
urged  to  enter  public  service,  yet  he  only  consented  to  suc- 
ceed Webster,  his  personal  friend,  in  the  Senate  while  the  lat- 
ter was  serving  his  country  as  Secretary  of  State,  later  to  resign 
that  Webster  might  return  to  the  Senate. 

Speaking  of  the  public  services  of  Choate,  one  of  his  biog- 
raphers writes  :  ''He  had  won  for  himself  an  enviable  repu- 
tation as  a  deliberative  orator  in  the  golden  age  of  American 
eloquence.  But  he  had  little  taste  and  less  fondness  for  politi- 
cal life,  and  no  aptitude  at  all  for  the  drudgery  by  which  party 
eminence  is  gained  and  party  favor  kept.  He  cared  little  for 
this  sort  of  success.  He  counted  it  as  a  hindrance  to  the  cul- 
tivation of  professional  and  literary  tastes,  and  could  therefore 
hold  fast  to  those  conservative  opinions  which  tend  to  keep 
a  person  in  retirement." 


THE  AGE  OF  THE  PILGRIMS 

This  speech  was  delivered  before  the  New  England  Association  of  the 
City  of  New  York,  in  December,  1843. 

I.  EARLY  HEROISM     • 

Mr.  Choate  traces  the  history  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  and  shows  how  the 
spirit  of  liberty  led  them  to  flee  their  oppressors  and  brave  the  hardships 
necessary  to  establish  a  colony  in  New  England. 

We  meet  again,  the  children  of  the  Pilgrims,  to  remember  our 
fathers.  We  meet  again,  to  repeat  their  names  one  by  one,  to  re- 
trace the  lines  of  their  character,  to  recall  the  lineaments  and 
forms  over  which  the  grave  has  no  power,  to  appreciate  their  vir- 
tues, to  recount  the  course  of  their  lives  full  of  heroic  deeds,  varied 
by  sharpest  trials,  crowned  by  transcendent  consequences,  to  assert 


26o  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

the  directness  of  our  descent  from  such  an  ancestry  of  goodness 
and  greatness,  to  erect,  refresh,  and  touch  our  spirits  by  coming 
for  an  hour  into  their  more  immediate  presence,  such  as  they  were 
in  the  days  of  their  human  "agony  of  glory."  The  two  centuries 
which  interpose  to  hide  them  from  our  eye  —  centuries  so  brilliant 
with  progress,  so  crowded  by  incidents,  so  fertile  in  accumula- 
tions — dissolve  away  for  the  moment  as  a  curtain  of  clouds,  and 
we  are  once  more  by  their  side.  The  grand  and  pathetic  series  of 
their  story  unrolls  itself  around  us,  vivid  as  if  with  the  life  of  yes- 
terday. All  the  stages,  all  the  agents,  of  the  process  by  which  they 
and  the  extraordinary  class  they  belonged  to,  were  slowly  formed 
from  the  general  mind  and  character  of  England.  The  successive 
development  and  growth  of  opinions  and  traits  and  determinations 
and  fortunes,  by  which  they  were  advanced  from  Protestants  to 
Republicans,  from  Englishmen  to  Pilgrims,  from  Pilgrims  to  the 
founders  of  a  free  Church,  and  the  fathers  of  a  free  people  in  a 
new  world ;  the  retirement  to  Holland ;  the  resolution  to  seek  the 
sphere  of  their  duties  and  the  asylum  of  their  rights  beyond  the 
sea ;  the  embarkation  at  Delft  Haven  —  a  noble  colony  of  devout 
Christians,  educated  and  firm  men,  valiant  soldiers,  and  honorable 
women ;  a  colony  on  the  commencement  of  whose  heroic  enter- 
prise the  selectest  influences  of  religion  seemed  to  be  descending 
visibly,  and  beyond  whose  perilous  path  are  hung  the  rainbow  and 
the  westward  star  of  empire ;  the  voyage  of  the  Mayfloiver ;  the 
landing ;  the  slow  \yinter's  night  of  disease  and  famine  in  which  so 
many  —  the  good,  the  beautiful,  the  brave  —  sunk  down  and  died, 
giving  place  at  last  to  the  spring  dawn  of  health  and  plenty ;  the 
meeting  with  the  old  red  race  on  the  hill  beyond  the  brook  ;  the 
treaty  of  peace  unbroken  for  half  a  century ;  the  organization  of  a 
republican  government  in  the  Mayflower  cabin ;  the  planting  of 
these  kindred  and  coeval  and  auxiliar  institutions,  without  which 
such  a  government  can  no  more  live  than  the  uprooted  tree  can  put 
forth  leaf  or  flower;  institutions  to  diffuse  pure  religion;  good 
learning ;  austere  morality ;  the  practical  arts  of  administration ; 
labor,  patience,  obedience ;  "  plain  living  and  high  thinking  ";  the 


RUFUS   CHOATE  261 

securities  of  conservatism  ;  the  germs  of  progress ;  the  laying  deep 
and  sure,  far  down  on  the  rock  of  ages,  of  the  foundation  stones 
of  the  imperial  structure  whose  dome  now  swells  toward  heaven ; 
all  these  high,  holy,  and  beautiful  things  come  thronging  fresh  on 
all  our  memories,  beneath  the  influence  of  the  hour.  Such  as  we 
heard  them  from  our  mothers'  lips,  such  as  we  read  them  in  the  his- 
tories of  kings,  of  religions,  and  of  liberty,  they  gather  themselves 
about  us  ;  familiar  but  of  an  interest  that  can  never  die,  heightened 
inexpressibly  by  their  relations  to  that  eventful  future  into  which 
they  have  expanded  and  through  whose  lights  they  show. 

And  yet,  with  all  this  procession  of  events  and  persons  moving 
before  us,  and  solicited  this  way  and  that  by  the  innumerable 
trains  of  speculation  and  of  feeling  which  such  a  sight  inspires,  we 
can  think  of  nothing  and  of  nobody,  here  and  now,  but  the  Pilgrims 
themselves.  I  cannot,  and  do  not,  wish  for  a  moment  to  forget 
that  it  is  their  festival  we  have  come  to  keep.  It  is  their  taberna- 
cles we  have  come  to  build.  It  is  not  the  Reformation,  it  is  not 
colonization^  it  is  not  ourselves,  our  present  or  our  future,  it  is 
not  political  economy,  or  political  philosophy,  of  which  to-day  you 
would  have  me  say  a  word.  We  have  a  specific  and  single  duty  to 
perform.  We  would  speak  of  certain  valiant,  good,  and  peculiar 
men,  our  fathers.  We  would  wipe  the  dust  from  a  few  old,  plain, 
noble  urns.  We  would  shun  husky  disquisitions,  irrelevant  novel- 
ties, and  small  display ;  would  recall  rather  and  merely  the  forms 
and  lineaments  of  the  heroic  dead  —  forms  and  features  which  the 
grave  has  not  changed,  over  which  the  grave  has  no  power. 

I  regard  it  as  a  great  thing  for  a  nation  to  be  able,  as  it  passes 
through  one  sign  after  another  of  its  zodiac  pathway,  in  prosperity, 
in  adversity,  and  at  all  times,  to  be  able  to  look  to  an  authentic 
race  of  founders,  and  a  historical  principle  of  institution,  in  which 
it  may  rationally  admire  the  realized  idea  of  true  heroism.  Whether 
it  looks  back  in  the  morning  or  evening  of  its  day ;  whether  it 
looks  back  as  now  we  do,  in  the  emulous  fervor  of  its  youth,  or  in 
the  full  strength  of  manhood,  it  is  a  great  and  precious  thing  to  be 
able  to  ascend  to,  and  to  repose  its  strenuous  or  its  wearied  virtue 


262  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

upon,  a  heroic  age  and  a  heroic  race,  which  it  may  not  falsely  call 
its  own.  I  mean  by  a  heroic  age  and  race,  not  exclusively  or  nec- 
essarily the  earliest  national  age  and  race,  but  one,  the  course 
of  whose  history  and  the  traits  of  whose  character,  and  the  extent 
and  permanence  of  whose  influences,  are  of  a  kind  and  power  not 
merely  to  be  recognized  in  after  time  as  respectable  or  useful,  but 
of  a  kind  and  a  power  to  kindle  and  feed  the  moral  imagination, 
move  the  capacious  heart,  and  justify  the  intelligent  wonder  of  the 
world.  An  age  "  doctrinal  and  exemplary,"  from  whose  personages, 
and  from  whose  actions,  the  orator  may  bring  away  an  incident,  or  a 
thought,  that  shall  kindle  a  fire  in  ten  thousand  hearts,  as  on  altars 
to  their  country's  glory  ;  and  to  which  the  discouraged  teachers  of 
patriotism  and  morality  to  corrupted  and  expiring  states  may  resort 
for  examples  how  to  live  and  how  to  die. 

II.    FOUNDATIONS  OF  PURITANISM 

Mr.  Choate  holds  that  it  was  the  spirit  of  the  Reformation  which  im- 
pelled the  Pilgrim  Fathers  to  make  untold  sacrifices  for  independence  of 
thinking.  "  I  seem  to  myself  to  trace  it,  as  an  influence  on  the  English 
race  —  a  new  theology,  new  politics,  another  tone  of  character,  the  opening 
of  another  era  of  time  and  of  liberty." 

I  confess  that  I  love  to  trace  the  pedigree  of  our  transatlantic 
liberty  backwards  through  Switzerland,  to  its  native  land  of  Greece. 
I  think  this  the  true  line  of  succession,  down  which  it  has  been 
transmitted.  There  was  a  liberty  which  the  Puritans  found,  kept, 
and  improved  in  England.  They  would  have  changed  it,  and  were 
not  able.  But  that  was  a  kind  which  admitted  and  demanded  an 
inequality  of  many,  a  subordination  of  ranks,  a  favored  eldest 
son,  the  ascending  orders  of  a  hierarchy,  the  vast  and  constant 
pressure  of  a  superincumbent  crown.  It  was  the  liberty  of  feudal- 
ism. It  was  the  liberty  of  a  limited  monarchy,  overhung  and  shaded 
by  the  imposing  architecture  of  great  antagonistic  elements  of  the 
state.  Such  was  not  the  form  of  liberty  which  our  fathers  brought 
with  them.  Allowing,  of  course,  for  that  anomalous  tie  which  con- 
nected them  with  the  English  crown  three  thousand  miles  off,  it 


RUFUS  CHOATE  263 

was  republican  freedom,  as  perfect  the  moment  they  stepped  on 
the  rock  as  it  is  to-day.  It  had  not  been  all  bom  in  the  woods  of 
Germany ;  by  the  Elbe  or  Eyder ;  or  the  plains  of  Runnymede. 
It  was  the  child  of  other  climes  and  days.  It  sprang  to  life  in 
Greece.  It  gilded  next  the  early  and  the  middle  age  of  Italy.  It 
then  reposed  in  the  hallowed  breast  of  the  Alps.  It  descended  at 
length  on  the  iron-bound  coast  of  New  England,  and  set  the  stars 
of  glory  there.  At  every  stage  of  its  course,  at  every  reappearance, 
it  was  guarded  by  some  new  security ;  it  was  embodied  in  some 
new  element  of  order ;  it  was  fertile  in  some  larger  good  ;  it  glowed 
with  a  more  exceeding  beauty.    Speed  its  way  ;  perfect  its  nature  ! 

Take,  Freedom  !  take  thy  radiant  round, 
When  dimmed  revive,  when  lost  return. 

Till  not  a  shrine  through  earth  be  found, 
On  which  thy  glories  shall  not  burn. 

Thus  were  laid  the  foundations  of  the  mind  and  character  of 
Puritanism.  Thus,  slowly,  by  the  breath  of  the  spirit  of  the  age, 
by  the  influence  of  undefiled  religion,  by  freedom  of  the  soul,  by 
much  tribulation,  by  a  wider  survey  of  man,  nature,  and  human 
life,  it  was  trained  to  its  work  of  securing  and  improving  the  liberty 
of  England,  and  giving  to  America  a  better  liberty  of  her  own.  Its 
day  over  and  its  duty  done,  it  was  resolved  into  its  elements  and 
disappeared  among  the  common  forms  of  humanity,  apart  from 
which  it  had  acted  and  suffered,  above  which  it  had  to  move,  out 
of  which  by  a  long  process  it  had  been  elaborated.  Of  this  stock 
were  the  Pilgrim  Fathers.    They  came  of  heroical  companionship. 

The  planting  of  a  colony  in  a  new  world,  which  may  grow,  and 
which  does  grow,  to  a  great  nation,  where  there  was  none  before,  is 
intrinsically,  and  in  the  judgment  of  the  world,  of  the  largest  order 
of  human  achievement.  To  found  a  state  upon  a  waste  earth  is 
first  of  heroical  labors  and  heroical  glories.  To  build  a  pyramid  or  a 
harbor,  to  write  an  epic  poem,  to  construct  a  system  of  the  universe, 
to  take  a  city,  are  great,  or  may  be,  but  far  less  than  this. 

He,  then,  who  sets  a  colony  on  foot  designs  a  great  work.  He 
designs  all  the  good,  and  all  the  glory  of  which,  in  the  series  of 


264  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

ages,  it  may  be  the  means ;   and  he  shall  be  judged  more  by  the 
lofty  ultimate  aim  and  result  than  by  the  actual  instant  motive. 

I  distinguish  this  enterprise  of  our  fathers,  in  the  first  place,  by 
the  character  of  the  immediate  motive,  and  that  was,  first,  a  sense 
of  religious  duty.  They  had  adopted  opinions  in  religion,  which 
they  fully  believed  they  ought  to  profess,  and  a  mode  of  public 
worship  and  ordinances,  which  they  fully  believed  they  ought  to 
observe.  They  could  not  do  so  in  England ;  and  they  went  forth 
across  an  ocean  in  winter  to  find  a  wilderness  where  they  could.  To 
the  extent  of  this  motive,  therefore,  they  went  forth  to  glorify  God,  - 
and  by  obeying  his  written  will,  and  his  will  unwritten,  but  uttered 
in  the  voice  of  conscience  concerning  the  chief  end  of  man. 

It  was,  next,  a  thirst  for  freedom  from  unnecessary  restraint, 
which  is  tyranny,  —  freedom  of  the  soul,  freedom  of  thought,  a 
larger  measure  of  freedom  of  life ;  a  thirst  which  two  centuries 
had  been  kindling,  a  thirst  which  must  be  slaked,  though  but  from 
the  mountain  torrent,  though  but  from  drops  falling  from  the 
thunder  cloud,  though  but  from  fountains  lone  and  far,  and  guarded 
as  the  diamond  of  the  desert. 

These  were  the  motives  —  the  sense  of  duty  and  the  spirit  of 
liberty.  Great  sentiments,  great  in  man,  in  nations,  "  pregnant  with 
celestial  fire ! "  Wherewithal  could  you  fashion  a  people  for  the 
contentions  and  honors  and  uses  of  the  imperial  state  so  well  as 
by  exactly  these  ?  To  what,  rather  than  these,  would  you  wish  to 
trace  up  the  first  beatings  of  the  nation's  heart  ?  If,  from  the  whole 
field  of  occasion  and  motive,  you  could  have  selected  the  very 
passion,  the  very  chance,  which  should  begin  your  history,  the  very 
texture  and  pattern  and  hue  of  the  glory  which  should  rest  on  its 
first  days,  could  you  have  chosen  so  well  ?  The  sense  of  duty,  the 
spirit  of  liberty,  not  prompting  to  vanity  or  luxury  or  dishonest 
fame,  to  glare  or  clamor  or  hollow  circumstance  of  being ;  silent, 
intense,  earnest,  of  force  to  walk  through  the  furnace  of  fire,  yea,  the 
valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,  to  open  a  path  amid  the  sea,  to  make 
the  wilderness  to  bud  and  blossom  as  the  rose,  to  turn  back  half  a 
world  in  arms,  to  fill  the  amplest  measure  of  a  nation's  praise. 


RUFUS  CHOATE  265 

These  motives  and  these  hopes  —  the  sacred  sentiments  of  duty, 
obedience  to  the  will  of  God,  religious  trust,  and  the  spirit  of  lib- 
erty—  have  inspired,  indeed,  all  the  beautiful  and  all  the  grand 
in  the  history  of  man.  The  rest  is  commonplace.  "  The  rest  is 
vanity ;  the  rest  is  crime." 

III.    STRUGGLES  AT  PLYMOUTH 

Mr.  Choate  declares  that  the  trials  in  the  New  World  were  "  the  spring 
of  character  and  motive  from  which  the  current  of  our  national  fortunes 
has  issued  forth."  Representative  government  was  organized  on  board  the 
Mayflo%uer.    Here  was  "  the  exemplification  of  elementary  democracy." 

Choate  compares  the  heroism  of  the  Pilgrims  to  that  of  Leonidas  and  the 
Spartans  at  Thermopylae,  for  of  the  hundred  who  came  on  the  Mayjioxver  one 
half  died  within  a  year  and  most  of  these  within  the  first  three  months. 

I  acknowledge  the  splendor  of  that  transaction  [Thermopylae] 
in  all  its  aspects.  I  admit  its  morality,  too,  and  its  useful  influence 
on  every  Grecian  heart,  in  that  her  great  crisis.  And  yet  do  you 
not  think  that  who  so  could  by  adequate  description  bring  before 
you  that  first  winter  of  the  Pilgrims  ;  its  brief  sunshine  ;  the  nights 
of  storms  slow  waning ;  its  damp  or  icy  breath  felt  on  the  pillow 
of  the  dying ;  its  destitution ;  its  contrasts  with  all  their  former 
experience  of  life  ;  its  isolation  and  utter  loneliness  ;  its  deathbeds 
and  burials  ;  its  memories  ;  its  apprehensions  ;  its  hopes  ;  the  con- 
sultations of  the  prudent ;  the  prayers  of  the  pious  ;  the  occasional 
hymn  which  may  have  soothed  the  spirit  of  Luther,  in  which  the 
strong  heart  threw  off  its  burden  and  asserted  its  unvanquished 
nature ;  do  you  not  think  that  who  so  could  describe  them  calmly 
waiting  in  that  defile,  lonelier  and  darker  than  Thermopylae,  for 
a  morning  that  might  never  dawn,  or  might  show  them  when  it 
did,  a  mightier  arm  than  the  Persian,  raised  as  in  act  to  strike, 
would  he  not  sketch  a  scene  of  more  difficult  and  rarer  heroism, 
—  a  scene,  as  Wordsworth  has  said,  ''  Melancholy,  yea  dismal,  yet 
consolatory  and  full  of  joy,"  —  a  scene  even  better  fitted  than  that 
to  succor,  to  exalt,  to  lead  the  forlorn  hopes  of  all  great  causes  till 
time  shall  be  no  more  ? 


266  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

I  can  seem  to  see,  as  that  hard  and  dark  season  was  passing 
away,  a  diminished  procession  of  these  Pilgrims  following  another, 
dearly  loved  and  newly  dead,  to  that  bank  of  graves,  and  pausing 
sadly  there  before  they  shall  turn  away  to  see  that  face  no  more. 
In  full  view  from  that  spot  is  the  Mayflower  still  riding  at  her 
anchor,  but  to  sail  in  a  few  days  more  for  England,  leaving  them 
alone,  the  living  and  the  dead,  to  the  weal  or  woe  of  their  new 
home.  I  cannot  say  what  was  the  entire  emotion  of  that  moment 
and  that  scene;  but  the  tones  of  the  venerated  elder's  voice,  as 
they  gathered  round  him,  were  full  of  cheerful  trust,  and  they  went 
to  hearts  as  noble  as  his  own.  "  This  spot,"  he  might  say,  ''  this 
line  of  shore,  yea,  this  whole  land,  grows  dearer  daily,  were  it  only 
for  the  precious  dust  which  we  have  committed  to  its  bosom.  I 
would  sleep  here  and  have  my  own  hour  come,  rather  than  else- 
where, with  those  who  shared  with  us  in  our  exceeding  labors, 
whose  burdens  are  now  unloosed  forever.  I  would  be  near  them 
in  the  last  day,  and  have  a  part  in  their  resurrection.  And  now," 
he  proceeded,  "  let  us  go  from  the  side  of  the  grave  to  work  with 
all  our  might  that  which  we  have  to  do.  It  is  on  my  mind  that  our 
night  of  sorrow  is  well-nigh  ended,  and  that  the  joy  of  our  morning 
is  at  hand.  The  breath  of  the  pleasant  southwest  is  here,  and  the 
singing  of  birds.  The  sore  sickness  is  stayed ;  somewhat  more 
than  half  our  number  still  remain ;  and  among  these  some  of  our 
best  and  wisest,  though  others  are  fallen  to  sleep.  Matter  of  joy 
and  thanksgiving  it  is,  that  among  you  all,  the  living  and  the  dead, 
I  know  not  one,  even  when  disease  had  touched  him,  and  sharp 
grief  had  made  his  heart  as  a  little  child's,  who  desired,  yea,  who 
could  have  been  entreated,  to  go  back  to  England  by  yonder  ship. 
Plainly  is  it  God's  will  that  we  stand  or  fall  here.  All  his  provi- 
dences these  hundred  years  declare  it  as  with  beams  of  the  sun. 
Did  he  not  set  his  bow  in  the  clouds  in  that  bitterest  hour  of  our 
embarking,  and  build  his  glorious  ark  upon  the  sea  for  us  to  sail 
through  hitherward?  Wherefore,  let  us  stand  in  our  lot!  If  he 
prosper  us,  we  shall  found  a  church  against  which  the  gates  of  hell 
shall  not  prevail ;   and  a  colony,  yea,  a  nation,  by  which  all  other 


RUFUS   CHOATE  267 

nations  shall  be  healed.  Millions  shall  spring  from  our  loins,  and 
trace  back  with  lineal  love  their  blood  to  ours.  Centuries  here- 
after, in  great  cities,  the  capitals  of  mighty  states,  from  the  tribes 
of  a  common  Israel,  shall  come  together  the  good,  the  eminent, 
the  beautiful,  to  remember  our  dark  day  of  small  things  ;  yea,  gen- 
erations shall  call  us  blessed  !  " 

Without  a  sigh,  calmly,  with  triumph,  they  sent  the  Mayflower 
away,  and  went  back,  these  stern,  strong  men,  all,  all,  to  their  im- 
perial labors. 

I  have  said  that  I  deemed  it  a  great  thing  for  a  nation,  in  all 
the  periods  of  its  fortunes,  to  be  able  to  look  back  to  a  race  of 
founders  and  a  principle  of  institution  in  which  it  might  seem  to 
see  the  realized  idea  of  true  heroism.  That  felicity,  that  pride,  that 
help,  is  ours.  Our  past  —  both  its  great  eras,  that  of  settlement 
and  that  of  independence — should  announce,  should  compel,  should 
spontaneously  evolve  as  from  a  germ,  a  wise,  moral,  and  glorious 
future.  These  heroic  men  and  women  should  not  look  down  on 
a  dwindled  posterity.  It  should  seem  to  be  almost  of  course  too 
easy  to  be  glorious,  that  they  who  keep  the  graves,  bear  the  name, 
and  boast  the  blood,  of  men  in  whom  the  loftiest  sense  of  duty 
blended  itself  with  the  fiercest  spirit  of  liberty,  should  add  to  their 
freedom,  justice ;  justice  to  all  men,  to  all  nations ;  justice,  that 
venerable  virtue,  without  which  freedom,  valor,  and  power  are  but 
vulgar  things. 

And  yet  is  the  past  nothing,  even  our  past,  but  as  you,  quickened 
by  its  examples,  instructed  by  its  experience,  warned  by  its  voices, 
assisted  by  its  accumulated  instrumentality,  shall  reproduce  it  in 
the  life  of  to-day.  Its  once  busy  existence,  various  sensations,  fiery 
trials,  dear-bought  triumphs ;  its  dynasty  of  heroes,  all  its  pulses 
of  joy  and  anguish,  and  hope  and  fear,  and  love  and  praise,  are 
with  the  years  beyond  the  flood.  "  The  sleeping  and  the  dead  are 
but  as  pictures."  Yet,  gazing  on  these,  long  and  intently  and  often, 
we  may  pass  into  the  likeness  of  the  departed,  may  emulate  their 
labors,  and  partake  of  their  immortality. 


EDWARD  EVERETT 


Edward  Everett  (i 794-1 865),  the  academic  orator,  was 
the  most  scholarly  of  America's  great  orators,  the  product 
of  the  best  culture  of  New  England.  His  preparation  for  col- 
lege was  made  in  the  Boston 
schools  and  Phillips  Academy 
at  Exeter.  He  entered  Har- 
vard at  the  age  of  thirteen, 
the  youngest  of  his  class,  and 
was  graduated  in  four  years 
with  the  highest  honors.  He 
early  became  an  accomplished 
reader  of  the  classics,  and  on 
his  graduation  was  made  tutor 
of  Latin  in  Harvard  College. 
During  his  tutorship  he  be- 
gan the  study  of  theology,  and 
two  years  later  entered  the 
ministry  and  accepted  a  call 
to  a  church  in  Boston.  For 
the  next  two  years  large  as- 
semblies gathered  to  hear  the 
popular  and  eloquent  young  clergyman.  But  the  charm  of 
his  scholarship  rather  than  his  message  attracted  the  people. 
He  did  not  remain  long  in  the  ministry.  Harvard  College 
called  him  to  the  professorship  of  Greek  literature,  and  gave 
him  opportunity,  before  entering  upon  his  duties,  to  study 
and  travel  abroad.  Such  an  offer  to  a  man  of  his  scholarly 
tastes  was  most  attractive.    He  accepted  the  position  and 

268 


EDWARD   EVERETT  269 

Spent  four  years  and  a  half  in  study  and  travel,  two  years  at 
Gottingen  and  short  periods  at  several  other  European  uni- 
versities, notably  Oxford  and  Cambridge.  Much  of  his  time 
was  spent  in  and  about  Athens  in  the  study  of  art,  literature, 
and  archeology.  He  became  an  accomplished  linguist  and 
met  many  of  the  most  distinguished  statesmen,  scholars,  and 
authors.  During  the  six  years  of  his  active  work  as  pro- 
fessor of  Greek  at  Harvard  he  gave  many  popular  lectures 
on  Greek  literature  and  art.  These  lectures  not  only  showed 
immense  resources  of  learning  and  culture,  but  gave  evidence 
of  marked  ability  as  a  public  speaker,  and  showed  the  great 
ease  with  which  he  could  command  his  knowledge  of  language 
and  idiom. 

His  general  education  and  wide  knowledge  of  affairs  did 
not  stop  here.  He  became  the  editor  and  founder  of  the 
North  American  Reviciv,  and  began  a  profound  study  of 
public  questions,  constitutional  law,  and  diplomacy.  The  con- 
stant editorial  work  of  one  whose  ability  as  a  student  writer 
was  traditional  at  Harvard  gave  him  intimate  knowledge  of 
men  and  legislation,  and  developed  that  singular  felicity  and 
power  of  expression  which  were  called  into  use  in  his  many 
public  addresses. 

Not  only  was  Everett  a  general  student  of  art,  literature, 
theology,  and  diplomacy,  but  he  was  a  special  student  of  ora- 
tory. Although  his  native  ability  as  an  orator  was  not  to  be 
compared  with  that  of  Webster,  Clay,  or  Phillips,  yet  he  set 
out  with  the  high  resolve  to  succeed  as  a  public  speaker  —  an 
occasional  orator,  in  the  phrase  of  to-day.  No  American  of 
distinction  ever  worked  harder  to  attain  success.  Like  a  fa- 
mous German  who  felt  himself  handicapped  in  his  fight  for 
distinction,  Everett  "  resolved  to  make  as  much  as  possible 
out  of  the  stuff";  and,  like  Demosthenes,  whose  oratory 
Everett  used  as  his  model,  he  "  left  nothing  to  chance  which 


270  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

work  could  accomplish,"  for  his  orations  and  polished  periods 
did  indeed  "  smell  of  the  lamp." 

Physically  Everett's  presence  was  satisfying  to  the  eye. 
He  had  a  fine,  well-proportioned,  erect  figure,  a  noble  face, 
a  large  mouth,  a  firm  chin,  and  large  beaming  eyes.  His 
voice,  naturally  sweet  and  clear,  became,  by  persistent  training, 
full,  rich,  varied,  wide  of  compass  and  emotional.  Its  whisper 
penetrated,  and  its  full  volume  was  powerful,  swelling,  and 
melodious.  His  gestures  and  attitudes,  though  studied  and  at 
times  mechanical,  were  graceful  and  appropriate.  It  was  a 
custom  with  him  to  introduce  in  his  public  addresses  certain 
physical  objects  to  enforce  his  thought.  For  instance,  he 
would  have  a  flag  placed  on  the  lectern,  that  during  certain 
patriotic  passages  he  might  seize  it  and  wave  it  before  the 
audience.  Once  in  speaking  of  the  flash  of  thought  under 
the  sea  he  produced  a  piece  of  the  Atlantic  cable.  In  the 
course  of  an  agricultural  address  in  New  England,  when 
speaking  of  a  product  richer  than  the  gold  of  California,  he 
held  up  before  the  audience  an  ear  of  yellow  corn.  These 
studied  effects  were  so  graceful,  and  to  all  intents  so  sponta- 
neous that  public  taste  was  not  offended  by  them,  though 
in  the  light  of  the  present  such  effects  border  on  the  tricky 
or  the  theatrical. 

The  strength  of  Everett's  oratory  lies  in  its  symmetry  and 
finish.  He  resembled  the  Greeks  in  the  severity  of  his 
rhetoric.  As  literature  his  orations  approached  "  nearer  the 
Hellenic  standard  in  form  and  body  "  than  any  other  collec- 
tion of  American  speeches.  A  collection  of  his  occasional 
orations  are  worthy  the  best  of  the  Greeks.  All  his  orations 
were  written  with  the  most  painstaking  care.  He  was  so  con- 
scientious in  this  as  to  be  thought  almost  finical  in  taste  and 
refinement.  His  sentences  were  polished  and  rhythmical, 
his  periods  were  wrought  out  and  burnished.    His  polished 


EDWARD   EVERETT  2/1 

cadences,  his  balanced  sentences,  and  his  well-poised  antithe- 
ses made  his  style  the  highest  triumph  of  rhetoric. 

And  yet  Everett  was  no  mere  rhetorician.  His  addresses 
covered  a  wide  range  of  subjects.  There  were  anniversary 
addresses,  literary  addresses,  eulogies,  political  and  congress- 
ional speeches,  which  show  wide  knowledge  and  felicitous 
treatment.  The  commonest  topics  receive  illumination  from 
his  speeches.  "His  good  sense,"  says  Sears,  "  kept  him  from 
sacrificing  anything  to  mere  expression  ;  his  large  knowledge 
delivered  him  from  bondage  to  the  symphonies  of  speech  on 
every  occasion.  He  knew  when  magnificent  declamation  was 
in  place,  and  also  when  plain  and  practical  discourse  was 
equally  imperative.  The  sense  of  fitness  never  deserted  him. 
...  His  great  masterpieces  of  eloquence  are  of  immeasura- 
ble worth  in  the  history  of  that  art  which  he  so  assiduously 
cultivated.  It  constitutes  a  special  department  of  public  speech 
fhd  approximates  closely  to  the  ideal  of  oratory  as  an  art." 
His  speeches  show  what  culture  and  knowledge  may  become 
in  the  hands  of  an  eloquent  man,  when  there  is  harmony 
between  the  speaker,  his  theme,  and  his  audience.  He  appeals 
to  the  intellect  more  than  to  the  emotions.  The  chief  criticism 
made  upon  his  oratory  is  that  he  lacked  fire,  that  because  he 
spoke  from  memory  his  speeches  lacked  abandon  and  spon- 
taneity, for  one  who  would  reach  the  pinnacle  of  eloquence. 
One  of  his  critics  says  that  "  he  too  generally  approached  the 
deliberate  style  of  the  writer,  losing  in  doing  so  the  rapidity, 
the  warmth,  the  compelling  power  of  the  orator.  His  sur- 
passingly great  merit  is  his  knowledge  of  history,  his  grasp 
of  fact,  and  his  ability  to  present  it  in  its  harmonies."  Yet  it 
must  be  confessed  that  as  reading  matter,  as  literature,  most 
of  our  great  orators  suffer  in  comparison  with  Everett.  "His 
style,"  says  Harsha,  "is  elaborated  with  the  greatest  care  and 
perfection.    His  sensibilities  are  very  refined,  his  imagination 


2/2  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

is  sparkling.  No  one  can  listen  to  him  without  being  moved, 
instructed,  and  delighted." 

To  attain  his  perfection  oi  art  Everett  was  untiring  in 
preparation  and  practice.  At  thirty  years  of  age  he  made 
his  first  formal  address  before  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  society 
at  Harvard.  His  success  was  instantaneous.  The  people 
were  more  than  pleased  ;  they  were  amazed  at  the  wisdom 
and  learning  displayed  by  the  speaker.  He  spoke  on  the 
''Progress  of  Literature  in  America."  Years  later  one  who 
heard  him  on  that  occasion  wrote  :  "The  sympathies  of  his 
audience  went  with  him  in  a  rushing  stream  as  he  painted  in 
glowing  hues  the  political,  social,  and  literary  future  of  our 
country.  They  drank  with  thirsty  ears  his  rapid  generalization 
and  his  sparkling  rhetoric.  As  with  a  skillful  and  flying  hand 
the  orator  ran  over  the  chords  of  national  pride  and  patriotic 
feeling,  every  bosom  throbbed  in  unison,  and  when  the  fervid 
declamation  of  the  concluding  paragraph  was  terminated  by 
the  simple  pathos  of  the  address  to  Lafayette,  who  was  present 
at  the  orator's  side,  his  hearers  were  left  in  a  state  of  emotion 
far  too  deep  for  tumultuous  applause." 

The  success  of  this  speech  opened  the  way  to  a  career  as 
an  occasional  orator,  which  had  not  been  followed  so  exclu- 
sively by  any  of  his  predecessors.  It  was  a  splendid  and 
amazing  triumph  for  a  man  of  thirty  years,  and  was  the  be- 
ginning of  a  long  series  of  patriotic  addresses  made  on  similar 
public  occasions.  It  established  his  reputation  as  one  of  the 
most  accomplished  orators  of  the  time.  The  same  year  he 
delivered  an  oration  at  Plymouth  on  the  "  First  Settlement 
of  New  Englahd,"  a  masterly  oration,  worthy  of  the  occasion 
and  full  of  most  beautiful  sentiments.  The  oration  in  commem- 
oration of  "Adams  and  Jefferson"  was  delivered  in  1826; 
the  one  on  the  "  Bunker  Hill  Monument  "in  1833  ;  the  one 
on  the  "  Death  of  Lafayette  "  in  1834,  pronounced  in  Faneuil 


EDWARD   EVERETT  2/3 

Hall ;  and  a  speech  on  the  ''  Battle  of  Lexington  "  in  1835, 
delivered  on  the  battlefield  on  the  sixtieth  anniversary  of  that 
memorable  conflict.  The  best  known  of  all  his  orations  was 
that  on  the  ''  Character  of  Washington,"  first  delivered  in 
Boston  in  1856,  but  afterwards  a  hundred  and  twenty  times, 
in  different  parts  of  the  country,  for  the  benefit  of  the  Mount 
Vernon  Association.  This  organization  was  formed  ''  to  pur- 
chase Mount  Vernon,  in  order  that  it  might  forever  belong 
to  the  American  people  as  a  place  of  public  resort  and  pil- 
grimage." His  efforts  realized  for  that  association  $60,000 
and  thus  assured  the  purchase  and  maintenance  of  the  home 
of  Washington.  The  last  of  his  well-known  occasional  ad- 
dresses was  the  oration  at  the  "  Dedication  of  the  National 
Cemetery  at  Gettysburg"  in  1863.  The  many  extracts  from 
these  addresses  which  may  be  found  in  our  schoolbooks, 
and  which  will  be  declaimed  along  with  those  of  Patrick 
Henry,  Webster,  and  Phillips,  attest  to  their  worth  and  the 
deep  impression  they  have  made. 

Sears  says  of  his  oratory  :  ''It  was  the  fortune  of  many 
distinguished  men  of  the  last  generation  to  receive  an  impulse 
in  life  from  the  classic  purity  and  grace  of  such  English  as 
Everett  knew  how  to  construct  out  of  the  wealth  of  his  re- 
sources. To  the  most  varied  culture  he  added  an  immense 
and  diversified  learning,  a  retentive  memory,  so  much  valued 
by  the  Hellenic  orators,  great  facility  and  felicity  of  expression, 
a  ready  wit,  a  conciliating  humor,  a  dexterity  in  turning  the 
sharp  corners  of  discussion,  and  always  a  sense  of  fitness 
which  is  both  the  essence  and  the  safeguard  of  good  style." 

Everett  is  a  good  example  of  what  men  of  moderate  ability 
may  accomplish  by  the  severest  discipline.  What  though  he 
practiced  his  periods  for  smoothness  and  rhythm,  what  though 
now  and  then  he  was  ornamental  in  style,  what  though  he 
indulged  in  word  painting  to  excess,  and  studied  gesture  and 


274  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

effects  of  voice  even  at  the  age  of  sixty,  what  though  he  lacked 
emotion  and  kindhng  sensibihties  and  was  mechanical  and 
constrained  at  times  in  method,  yet  by  his  diligence  as  a 
student  of  oratorical  expression  he  became  the  most  sought 
of  the  lyceum  orators  of  the  time. 

One  of  his  critics  has  declared  that  Everett's  was  the 
"  art  and  mechanism  of  eloquence,  rather  than  its  genius," 
that  his  orations  were  ''stand-up  essays,"  and  that  his  eloquent 
writing  did  not  succeed  in  Congress  as  short,  spontaneous 
and  pointed  speeches  do.  It  is  true  that  he  committed  his 
speeches.  'But  this  was  no  drudgery  to  him,  for  he  could 
repeat  his  own  written  speeches  by  reading  them  once  or 
twice  over.  It  is  to  his  credit  that  he  took  such  pains  to  bring 
before  waiting  audiences  such  knowledge  in  so  attractive  a 
form.  Grant  that  he  was  not  so  great  as  Clay  or  Webster  in 
the  Senate,  or  as  Phillips  or  Beecher  in  the  presence  of  hos- 
tile audiences.  Everett  was  not  an  agitator  or  an  aggressive 
orator,  but  give  him  an  academic  audience,  or  a  popular 
audience  on  a  patriotic  occasion,  and  he  was  supremely  effec- 
tive. He  blended  the  essentials  of  the  great  orator  in  a  high 
degree,  but  it  is  no  disparagement  to  him  to  say  that  there 
were  forensic,  political,  and  congressional  orators  who  were 
his  peers. 

Not  only  was  he  great  as  an  orator,  but  what  other  man  in 
American  history  occupied  so  many  important  positions  and 
with  such  ability .''  Note  them  in  order :  instructor  of  Latin 
at  Harvard,  pastor  of  a  church  in  Boston,  professor  of  Greek 
at  Harvard,  editor  of  North  American  Review,  congressman, 
three  times  elected  governor  of  Massachusetts,  minister  to 
England,  president  of  Harvard,  Secretary  of  State  in  the 
Fillmore  administration,  senator  from  Massachusetts,  and 
vice-presidential  candidate. 


EDWARD  EVERETT  275 


CHARACTER  OF  WASHINGTON 

This  speech  was  first  delivered  on  February  22,  1856.  It  was  received 
with  such  enthusiasm  that  calls  came  from  all  parts  of  the  nation  for  a 
repetition  of  it.  Interest  was  heightened  by  the  announcement  that  Mr. 
Everett  would  contribute  the  entire  proceeds  of  a  lecture  tour  to  the  com- 
mission which  proposed  to  purchase  Mount  Vernon  as  a  national  posses- 
sion. The  speech  was  delivered  one  hundred  twenty  times,  and  the  sum 
realized  was  $60,000. 

I.    CONTRAST  WITH   NAPOLEON 

Mr.  Everett  traces  the  history  of  Washington  from  his  early  successes 
in  the  frontier  wars  to  his  successful  career  as  commander  in  chief  of  the 
Revolutionary  forces.  Then  he  compares  him  with  "  the  great  captain  of 
the  nineteenth  century." 

I  am  to  speak  to  you  this  evening,  my  friends,  of  the  character 
of  Washington,  on  this,  the  anniversary  of  his  birthday  —  a  great 
and  glorious  theme,  but  as  difficult  as  it  is  interesting  and  im- 
portant. To  do  justice  to  his  character  we  must  sketch  the 
background  of  the  picture  of  which  he  forms  the  most  prominent 
personage.  He  has  been  often  called,  and  among  others  by  the  first 
living  parliamentary  orator  of  England  [Lord  Brougham],  ''  the 
greatest  man  of  our  own  or  of  any  age  " ;  and  this  estimate  of  his 
character,  long  since  pronounced" by  his  grateful  countrymen,  seems 
to  me  more  and  more  confirmed  by  the  general  assent  of  the  more 
reflecting  portion  of  mankind.  And  if  the  first  part  of  the  eulo- 
gium  is  found  in  truth,  the  second  is  not  less  so.  Not  like  Alfred 
and  Charlemagne,  bright  lights  shining  in  dark  ages,  Washington 
lived  in  an  age  which,  notwithstanding  the  illustrious  names  which 
adorn  other  periods  of  history,  in  many  respects  stands  first  in  the 
annals  of  our  race  for  great  names,  great  events,  great  reforms, 
and  the  general  progress  of  intelligence.  The  period  which  has 
elapsed  from  about  the  commencement  of  the  last  century  down 
nearly  to  our  time,  and  of  which  Washington  is  the  brightest  orna- 
ment, may  be  called  with  propriety  the  age  of  wonders,  humanly 
speaking,  in  the  history  of  mankind. 


2/6  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

Compare  Washington  with  the  illustrious  captain  of  the  last 
generation  in  France,  that  portentous  blazing  star  which  began  to 
flame  in  the  eastern  sky  as  our  benignaiif  lufninary  was  sinking 
in  the  West,  amidst  the  golden  clouds  of  a  nation's  blessing.  I 
have  no  wish  to  trample  on  the  memory  of  Napoleon  the  First, 
whom  I  regard  by  no  means  as  the  most  ambitious  of  conquerors, 
the  most  arbitrary  of  despots,  or  the  worst  of  them.  The  virtues 
and  the  feelings,  like  the  talents,  the  opportunities,  and  the  fortunes 
of  this  extraordinary  man,  are  on  too  colossal  a  scale  to  be  meas- 
ured by  ordinary  standards  of  morality.  The  prevalent  opinions 
in  this  country  of  his  character  and  career  have  come  to  us  through 
a  British  medium-,  discolored  by  a  national  prejudice  and  the  deadly 
struggle  of  a  generation  ;  or  by  natural  reaction  have  been  founded 
on  the  panegyrics  of  grateful  adherents  and  admiring  subjects,  who 
deem  every  Frenchman  a  partner  in  the  glory  of  their  chief.  Pos- 
terity and  impartial  history  will  subdue  the  lights  and  relieve  the 
shadows  of  the  picture.  They  will  accord  to  him  a  high,  perhaps 
the  highest,  rank  among  the  great  masters  of  war,  placing  his  name 
on  an  equality  with  the  three  great  captains  of  antiquity,  if  not 
above  them ;  will  study  his  campaigns  for  lessons  of  strategy ; 
will  point  to  his  code  as  a  noble  monument  of  legislative  wisdom ; 
will  dwell  upon  the  creative  vigor  with  which  he  brought  order  out 
of  the  chaos  of  the  Revolution,  retrieving  the  dilapidated  finances 
and  restoring  the  prostrate  industry  of  France ;  will  enumerate  the 
harbors,  the  canals,  the  bridges,  the  public  buildings,  the  Alpine 
roads,  the  libraries,  the  museums,  and  all  the  thousand  works  of  in- 
dustrious peace  and  productive  art ;  will  not  withhold  their  admira- 
tion for  the  giant  grasp  of  his  genius  and  imperial  grandeur  of  his 
fortunes,  nor  deny  a  tribute  of  human  sympathy  to  his  calamitous 
decline  and  fall.  But  the  same  impartial  history  will  record  more 
than  one  ineffaceable  stain  upon  his  character,  and  never  to  the  end 
of  time,  never  on  the  page  of  historian,  poet,  or  philosopher,  never j 
till  a  taste  for  true  moral  greatness  is  eaten  out  of  the  hearts  of  men 
by  a  mean  admiration  of  success  and  power,  never,  in  the  exhor- 
tations of  their  prudent  magistrate  counseling  his  fellow  citizens 


EDWARD  EVERETT  277 

for  their  good,  never  in  the  dark  ages  of  national  fortune  when 
anxious  patriots  explore  the  annals  of  the  past  for  examples  of 
public  virtue,  never  in  the  admonition  of  the  parent  forming  the 
minds  of  his  "cHUcfren  by  lessons  of  fireside  wisdom,  never,  oh, 
never,  will  the  name  of  Napoleon,  nor  of  any  of  the  other  famous 
conquerors  of  ancient  and  modern  days,  be  placed  upon  a  level 
with  Washington's. 

But  though  Washington  was  thus  great  in  an  age  of  great  men 
and  great  events,  yet  was  his  greatness  neither  borrowed  nor  re- 
flected, but  original.  This  is  a  trait  in  his  character,  and  in  that  of 
some  of  his  most  distinguished  contemporaries,  not  perhaps  duly 
appreciated ;  that  they  were  to  a  degree  rarely,  if  ever,  equaled, 
the  architects  of  their  own  character  and  of  their  country's  for- 
tunes. Enriched  and  instructed  as  we  are  by  the  bright  examples, 
the  recorded  opinions,  and  the  established  institutions  of  the  past, 
we  reflect  too  little  how  much  guidance  we  derive  from  them  in 
the  practical  duties  of  public  life ;  nor  do  we  sufficiently  bear  in 
mind  how  many  of  these  examples,  opinions,  and  institutions  came 
down  to  us  from  the  age  of  Washington ;  ho^  few  go  back  to  an 
earlier  period,  or  could  have  been  of  use  in  the  formation  of  his 
mind  or  the  guidance  of  his  conduct.  In  order  fully  to  estimate 
what  he  did  for  the  country,  he  and  his  associates,  we  must  con- 
trast America  as  it  was  in  1732,  without  great  events,  great  insti- 
tutions, great  traditions,  and  great  characters,  with  America  as  it 
stood  at  his  decease  —  rich  in  great  events,  great  institutions,  great 
traditions,  and  great  characters,  and  his  the  greatest  of  them  all./Y^.,  j 
Our  voyage  is  on  a  well-known  sea,  the  course  laid  down  on  faith-  '  ' 
f  ul  charts,  and  the  shores  and  the  havens  pointed  out  and  described''''^ 
by  those  who  have  preceded  us ;  but  Washington  and  the  men  of  ^^ 
his  age  were  compelled,  against  adverse  tempests,  to  sound  their  "^ 

way  along  the  unvisited  coasts  of  republican  government  and 
constitutional  liberty. 


278  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

II.    HIS  SOLITARY  EMINENCE 

Mr.  Everett  declares  that  Washington  was  called  upon  to  take  part  in 
measures  which  were  without  precedent,  and  he  and  his  associates  were 
compelled  to  form  their  own  plan  of  government.  "  I  doubt  if  a  hundred 
pages  had  been  written  to  which  Washington  and  the  men  of  his  age  could 
refer  for  such  lessons  as  to  us  —  drawn  from  the  writings  and  examples  of 
the  Revolutionary  age  —  are  as  familiar  as  household  words." 

There  was  no  Washington  in  the  seventeenth  century,  in  the 
pure  mirror  of  whose  character  the  Washington  of  the  eighteenth    ^, 
cenj^ry  could  mold  and  fashion  his  youthful  virtues,  or  rehearse\i 
the-  great  part  he  was  to  act  in  life.  y^ 

There  was  none  in  America,  there  was  none  in  Europe,  there  was 
none  in  the  modern  world,  there  was  none  in  the  ancient  world,  I 
V  cast  my  eyes  along  the  far-stretching  galleries  of  history,  still  echoing 
/TO  the  footsteps  of  the  mighty  dead ;  I  behold  with  admiration  the 
images  and  the  statues  of  the  great  and  good  men  with  which  theyA  j 
are  accorded.  I  see  many  who  deserved  well  of  their  country  in  civil 
and  in  military  life,  —  on  the  throne,  in  the  council  chamber,  on  the 
bc^ttle  field,  —  but  I  Behold  in  the  long  line,  no  other  Washington. 
I  return  from  the  search  up  and  down  tho-  pathways  of  time, 
grateful  to  the  Providence  which,  at  the  solemn  moment,  when 
the  destinies  of  the  Continent  were  suspended  in  the  balance  of 
doubtful  future,  raised  up  a  chieftain  endowed  with  every  quality 
of  mind  and  heart  to  guide  the  fortunes  of  a  nascent  state. 

If,  then,  we  claim  for  Washington  this  solitary  eminence  among 
the  great  and  good,  the  question  will  naturally  be  asked,  in  what 
the  peculiar  and  distinctive  excellence  of  his  character  consisted ; 
and  to  this  fair  question  I  own,  my  friends,  I  am  tasked  to  find  an 
answer  that  does  full  justice  to  my  own  conceptions  and  feelings. 
It  is  easy  to  run  over  the  heads  of  such  a  contemplation ;  to 
enumerate  the  sterling  qualities  which  he  possessed,  and  the 
defects  from  which  he  was  free ;  but  when  all  is  said  in  this 
way  that  can  be  said,  with  whatever  justice  of  honest  eulogy 
and  whatever  sympathy  of  appreciation,  we  feel  that  there  is  a 
depth  which  we  hnve  not  sounded,  a  latent  power  we  have  jiot 


EDWARD  EVERETT  279 

measured,  a  mysterious  beauty  of  character  which  you  can  no  more 
describe  in  words^than  you  can  paint  a  blush_:  a  moral  fascination, 
so  to  express  it,  which  all  feel  but  which  we  cannot  analyze  nor 
trace  to  its  elements.  All  the  personal  traditions  of  Washington 
assure  us  that  there  was  a  serene  dignity  in  his  presence,  which 
charmed  while  it  awed  the  boldest  who  approached  him. 

You  feel  as  if  you  are  gazing  into  that  patient  blue  eye,  where 

resignation  shades  into  sadness ;  that  you  are  looking  upon  a  man 

whose  word  you  would  respect  as  an  uninspired  scripture,  whose 

probity  you  would  trust  with  uncounted  gold,  whose  counsels  you 

would  lay  up   in  your  heart   as  those  of  a  dying  father,  whose 

lead   you   would    implicitly  follow  in  the  darkest  hours  of  trial, 

^    whose  good  opinion  you  would  not  barter  for  the  wealth  of  the 

X  -Indies ;  a  man  toward  whom  affection  rises  into  reverence,  and 

>,.^everence  melts  back  into  childish,  tearful  love.  s^^fX/f^'y^^"'^ 

I  am  disposed  to  place  the  distinctive  beauty  and  excellence  of 
Washington's  character  in  that  well-balanced  aggregate  of  powers 
and  virtues  for  which  he  was  distinguished,  and  which  necessarily 
excludes  the  possession  of  one  or  two  highly  developed  prominent 
traits.  No  one,  I  think,  who  has  carefully  reflected  on  the  subject 
but  will  come  to  the  conclusion  that,  instead  of  being  improved, 
his  character  would  have  been  impaired  by  any  such  dazzling 
quSTity,  especially  when  we  take  into  account  the  defects  with 
which  such  qualities  are  sure  to  be  accompanied.  The  ardent  and 
ungoverned  temperament,  the  indomitable  will,  often  another 
name  for  arrogant  obstinacy  and  selfishness,  the  passionate  love 
of  distinction  and  applause,  which  enter  so  largely  in  most  cases 
into  what  is  called  a  brilliant  public  character,  would  have  destroyed 
the  beauty  and  broken  down  the  strength  of  Washington's.  The 
ancient  philosophers  placed  the  true  conception  of  perfect  man- 
hood in  the  n»6session  of  those  powers  and  qualities  which  are 
required  for  the  honorable  and  successful  discharge  of  the  duties 
of  life,  each  in  the  golden  mean,  equally  removed  from  excess  in 
either  direction,  and  all  in  due  proportion.  This  type  of  true 
greatness  I  find  more  fully  realized  in  the  character  of  Washington 


28o  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

than  in  that  of  any  other  chieftain  or  ruler  of  ancient  or  modern 
times.  He  did  not  possess  a  few  brilliant  qualities  in  that  exag- 
gerated degree  in  which  they  are  habitually  ascribed  to  the  heroes 
of  poetry  and  romance,  but  he  united  all  the  qualities  required  for 
the  honorable  and  successful  conduct  of  the  greatest  affairs,  each 
in  the  happy  mean  of  a  full  maturity,  and  all  in  that  true  propor- 
tion in  which  they  balance  and  sustain  each  other. 

III.    HIS  MORAL  GRANDEUR 

Mr.  Everett  discusses  the  special  qualities  that  go  to  make  up  Wash- 
ington's character,  among  which  are  prudence,  love  of  justice,  common 
sense,  a  calm  temperament,  and  modesty.  Then  he  says  that  all  these 
were  "  founded  on  the  basis  of  pure  Christian  morality." 

All  the  great  qualities  of  disposition  and  action,  which  so  emi- 
nently fitted  him  for  the  service  of  his  fellow  men,  were  founded  on 
the  basis  of  a  pure  Christian  morality,  and  derived  their  strength 
and  energy  from  that  vital  source.  He  was  great  as  he  was 
good ;  he  was  great  because  he  was  good ;  and  I  believe,  as  I  do 
in  my  existence,  that  it  was  an  important  part  in  the  design  of 
Providence  in  raising  him  up  to  be  the  leader  of  the  Revolutionary 
struggle,  and  afterwards  the  first  President  of  the  United  States, 
to  rebuke  prosperous  ambition  and  successful  intrigue ;  to  set 
before  the  people  of  America,  in  the  morning  of  their  national 
existence,  a  living  example  to  prove  that  armies  may  be  best 
conducted,  and  governments  most  ably  and  honorably  admin- 
istered, by  men  of  sound  moral  principle ;  to  teach  to  gifted  and 
aspiring  individuals,  and  the  parties  they  lead,  that,  though  a 
hundred  crooked  paths  may  conduct  to  a  temporary  success,  the 
one  plain  and  straight  path  of  public  and  private  virtue  can  alone 
lead  to  a  pure  and  lasting  fame  and  the  blessings  of  posterity. 

Born  beneath  a  humble  but  virtuous  roof,  brought  up  at  the 
knees  of  a  mother  not  unworthy  to  be  named  with  the  noblest 
matrons  of  Rome  or  Israel,  the  "  good  boy,"  as  she  delighted  to 
call  him,  passed  uncorrupted  through  the  temptations  of  the 
solitary  frontier,  the  camp,  and  the  gay  world,  and  grew  up  the 


EDWARD  EVERETT  28 1 

good  man.  Engaging  in  early  youth  in  the  service  of  his  country, 
rising  rapidly  to  the  highest  trusts,  office  and  influence  and  praise, 
passing  almost  the  bounds  of  human  desert,  did  nothing  to  break 
down  the  austere  simplicity  of  his  manners  or  to  shake  the  solid 
basis  of  his  virtues.  Placed  at  the  head  of  the  suffering  and  dis- 
contented armies  of  his  country,  urged  by  the  tempter  to  change 
his  honest  and  involuntary  dictatorship  of  influence  into  a  usurped 
dictatorship  of  power,  reluctantly  consenting  to  one  reelection  to 
the  Presidency  and  positively  rejecting  a  second,  no  suspicion  ever 
crossed  the  mind  of  an  honest  man  —  let  the  libelers  say  what  they 
would,  for  libelers  I  am  sorry  to  say  there  were  in  that  day  as  in 
this,  men  who  pick  their  daily  dishonorable  bread  out  of  the  char- 
acters of  men  as  virtuous  as  themselves,  and  they  spared  not 
Washington  —  but  the  suspicion  never  entered  into  the  mind  of  an 
honest  man  that  his  heart  was  open  to  the  seductions  of  ambition 
or  interest ;  or  that  he  was  capable  in  the  slightest  degree,  by 
word  or  deed,  of  shaping  his  policy  with  a  view  to  court  popular 
favor  or  serve  a  selfish  end ;  that  a  wish  or  purpose  ever  entered 
his  mind  inconsistent  with  the  spotless  purity  of  his  character.  f 

There  is  a  modest,  private  mansion  on  the  bank  of  the  Potomac,/?^ y,* 
the  abode,  of  George  Washington.    It  boasts  no  spacious  portal,  nor  ,-tX*^ 
gorgeous  colonnade,  nor  massy  elevation,  nor  storjed  tower.   No  arch 
or  column, IrTcourtly  English  or  courtlier  Latin,  sets  forth  the  deeds 
and  the  worth  of  the  Father  of  his  Country ;  he  needs  them  not ; 
the  um^itten  benedictions  of  millions  cover  all  the  walls.   No  gilded 
dome  swells  from  the  lowly  roof  to  catch  the  morning  or  evening 
beam,  but  the  love  and  gratitude  of  united  America  settle  upon  it  in 
one  eternal  sunshine.    From  beneath  that  humble  roof  went  forth 
the  intrepid  and  unselfish  warrior  —  the  magistrate  who  knew  no 
glory  but  his  country's  good ;  to  that  he  returned  happiest  when         t 
his  work  was  done.    There  he  lived  in  noble  simplicity ;  there  he  ^2f(^ 
died  in  glory  and  peace.    While  it  stands,  the  latest  generations  of 
the  grateful  children  of  America  will  make  their  pilgrimage  to  it  as 
to  a  shrine ;  and  when  it  shall  fall,  if  fall  it  must,  the  memory  and 
the  name  of  Washington  shall  shed  an  eternal  glory  on  the  spot. 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 


Abraham  Lincoln  (1809 -1865)  owed  as  little  to  books 
and  to  teachers  as  did  any  American  of  eminence.  In  the 
wilds  of  Kentucky  and  Indiana  during  his  youth  there  were 

very  few  schools  and  they 
were  poor  and  irregular. 
Lincoln's  whole  schooling, 
we  are  told,  did  not  amount 
to  as  much  as  one  year.  At 
the  age  of  seventeen  he  was 
compelled  to  go  four  miles 
to  attend  district  school. 
Reading,  writing,  and  arith- 
metic were  the  only  branches 
taught,  and  the  lad's  eager- 
ness for  knowledge  soon 
helped  him  to  proficiency  in 
these  subjects.  As  soon  as 
he  had  learned  to  read  un- 
derstandingly,  the  vast  field 
of  knowledge  began  to  open 
up  to  him.  For  a  long  time 
the  Bible  and  yEsop's  Fa- 
bles were  the  only  books  in 
his  possession.  He  must  have  known  these  by  heart,  for  we 
well  know  that  he  himself  spoke  in  figures  and  parables.  The 
next  books  to  come  into  his  hands  were  "  Robinson  Crusoe," 
a  Life  of  Washington,"  Pilgrim's  Progress,"  and  a  history  of 
the  United  States.    Whenever  he  found  a  moment  from  his 

2S2 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN  283 

work  he  would  take  up  a  book  and  begin  to  read,  and  his 
considerate  mother  was  so  deeply  interested  in  his  progress 
that  she  would  not  allow  him  to  be  disturbed.  Long  into 
the  night,  by  the  feeble  light  of  the  open  fire,  he  would  pore 
over  his  books.  The  pursuit  of  knowledge  became  a  pas- 
sion with  him.  His  retentive  memory,  his  power  of  assimi- 
lation, and  his  ability  to  go  to  the  bottom  of  subjects  soon 
gained  him  a  reputation  for  knowledge  and  good  sense. 
Ambassador  Choate,  in  an  address  in  London,  says  on  this 
subject :  "  Untiring  industry,  an  insatiable  thirst  for  knowl- 
edge, and  an  ever-growing  desire  to  rise  above  his  surroundings 
were  early  manifestations  of  his  character.  .  .  .  Instead  of  a 
university  training  fortune  substituted  trials,  hardships,  and 
struggles  as  a  preparation  for  his  great  work."  The  studious 
habits  acquired  in  his  early  youth  remained  with  him  to  the 
day  of  his  death,  and  never  was  he  better  fitted  to  serve  the 
American  people  than  at  the  hour  of  his  sacrifice. 

His  interest  in  the  law  dates  from  his  possession  of  a  copy 
of  the  statutes  of  Indiana,  which  he  read  and  reread  with  in- 
creasing interest.  But  it  was  not  until  a  copy  of  Blackstone 
came  into  his  hands  that  he  began  his  serious  study  of  the 
law.  ''  In  this  he  became  wholly  engrossed,  and  began  for 
the  first  time  to  avoid  the  society  of  men,  in  order  that  he 
might  have  more  time  for  study." 

Such  was  Lincoln's  general  education  and  the  foundation 
which  he  laid  for  his  work  as  a  lifelong  student.  What  was 
the  special  work  which  fitted  him  for  so  high  a  rank  among 
great  orators,  for  no  one  may  gain  such  eminence  in  literature 
and  oratory  without  some  kind  of  discipline  ? 

Few  men  ever  trained  themselves  more  thoroughly  and 
more  severely  in  the  use  of  the  English  language.  His  eager- 
ness for  expression  was  hardly  excelled  by  his  thirst  for  knowl- 
edge.   He  turned  everything  to  account.    He  meditated  on  the 


284  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

thoughts  he  had  gained  and  immediately  expressed  them  in  his 
own  simpler  language.  When  asked  by  Professor  Gulliver  of 
Andover,  Massachusetts,  how  he  acquired  such  control  of  the 
English  language,  he  replied  :  "  Well,  if  I  have  got  any  power 
that  way,  I  will  tell  you  how  I  suppose  I  came  to  get  it.  You 
see,  when  I  was  a  boy  over  in  Indiana  all  the  local  politicians 
used  to  come  to  our  cabin  to  discuss  politics  with  my  father. 
I  used  to  sit  by  and  listen  to  them,  but  my  father  would  not 
let  me  ask  many  questions,  and  there  were  a  good  many  things 
I  did  not  understand.  Well,  I  'd  go  up  to  my  room  in  the 
attic  and  sit  down  or  pace  back  and  forth  till  I  made  out  just 
what  they  meant.  And  then  I  'd  lie  awake  for  hours  just  put- 
ting their  ideas  into  words  that  the  boys  around  our  way  could 
understand."  This  was  the  secret  of  his  severe  self-discipline 
in  clearness  and  power  of  statement,  his  chief  aim  in  writing 
and  speaking.  To  avoid  verboseness  and  to  be  easily  under- 
stood he  studied  his  own  utterances  to  see  wherein  he  failed 
or  succeeded.  This  gave  him  a  marvelous  power  over  words 
in  extemporization.  The  London  Spectator  says  that  "  no 
criticism  of  Lincoln  can  in  any  sense  be  adequate  that  does 
not  deal  with  his  astonishing  power  over  words,  and  it  is  not 
too  much  to  say  of  him  that  he  is  among  the  greatest  masters 
of  prose  ever  produced  by  the  English  race." 

Lincoln  trained  himself  both  in  private  arguments  and  in 
public  speeches  to  express  his  thoughts  so  that  he  might  be 
instantly  understood.  This  gave  him  power  of  analysis  and 
the  ability  to  think  a  subject  through  to  a  logical  conclusion. 
When  at  work  in- the  fields  he  delighted  in  ''  speechifying," 
as  he  called  it,  and  would  often  mount  a  stump  and  harangue 
his  fellow  workmen,  who  were  ever  ready  to  listen  to  him. 
Not  infrequently  a  cluster  of  trees  offered  him  "dignified  and 
appreciative  audience."  Speaking  on  this  subject,  Hamilton 
Mabie  says  :  "  Countless  private  debates  were  carried  on  at 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN  285 

street  corners,  in  hotel  rooms,  by  the  country  road,  in  every 
place  where  men  met  even  in  the  most  casual  way.  In  these 
wayside  schools  Lincoln  practiced  the  art  of  putting  things, 
until  he  became  a  master  in  debate,  both  formal  and  informal. 
...  In  a  period  which  accepted  the  most  extravagant  rhetoric 
as  the  highest  kind  of  eloquence,  he  was  a  man  of  simple, 
sincere,  and  beautiful  speech  .  .  .  free  from  exaggeration,  from 
high-sounding  and  bombastic  phrase,  from  the  spread-eagleism 
which  was  the  passion  of  the  time." 

When  he  first  went  to  Springfield  he  became  a  member  of 
the  Young  Men's  Lyceum,  which  often  held  public  debates 
on  political  subjects.  His  style  was  then  flowery  and  some- 
what gaudy  in  ornament,  but  by  practice  he  grew  in  simplicity 
and  logical  power  and  gradually  acquired  a  style  of  singular 
felicity  and  persuasiveness.  He  was  at  this  time  a  persistent 
student  of  great  orations,  both  British  and  American,  and 
during  his  term  in  Congress  he  was  a  careful  observer  of  the 
methods  of  the  men  most  highly  reputed  for  their  eloquence. 
Joseph  Choate,  remarking  on  the  purity  and  perfection  of 
his  style  of  speaking,  says  :  ''  The  rough  backwoodsman  who 
had  never  seen  the  inside  of  a  university  became  in  the  end, 
by  self-training  and  the  exercise  of  his  own  powers  of  mind, 
heart,  and  soul,  a  master  of  style  ;  and  some  of  his  utterances 
will  rank  with  the  best,  the  most  perfectly  adapted  to  the 
occasion  which  produced  them."  Not  only  was  he  a  master 
of  style  by  consistent  and  unyielding  self-discipline,  but  he 
possessed  in  a  marked  degree  the  ability  to  master  his  ma- 
terials and  gain  a  firm  grasp  of  the  truth.  Possessed  of  a 
clear  vision,  an  open  logical  mind,  his  statement  of  a  case 
was  better  than  most  men's  argument.  He  had  the  happy 
faculty  of  putting  aside  all  extraneous  discussion,  platitudes, 
and  generalities.  In  conducting  his  cases  in  the  courts  he 
would  give  away  so  many  points  as  to  alarm  his  friends.    But 


286  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

he  would  say  to  the  court,  "  We  may  be  wrong  in  this,  but  it 
is  not  the  gist  of  the  matter  anyway."  This  Hberahty  and  dis- 
position toward  fair  play  always  told  with  a  jury  and  usually 
resulted  in  the  verdict  which  he  asked  for. 

Another  important  element  in  his  style  was  his  use  of 
figures,  analogies,  and  stories.  His  power  of  comparison  was 
unique.  In  the  making  of  points  which  came  home  to  the 
general  mind  through  his  figures  and  analogies  he  was  not 
surpassed  by  any  other  of  our  orators.  All  opponents  dreaded 
his  apt  comparisons,  his  novel  way  of  putting  things,  his  terse- 
ness and  force  of  expression.  And  not  the  least  effective  of 
his  weapons  were  his  native  wit,  his  quaint  humor,  and  his 
wonderful  gift  as  a  story-teller.  "  I  am  not  simply  a  story- 
teller," he  once  said,  "  but  story-telling  as  an  emollient  saves 
me  much  friction  and  distress."  His  anecdotes,  always  perti- 
nent, were  used  to  enforce  his  points,  to  quicken  the  minds 
of  his  audience,  and  sometimes  to  divert  a  curious  questioner. 
Ambassadors  and  statesmen  were  often  quite  shocked  to  have 
the  President  of  the  United  States  interrupt  them  with  a  story 
of  a  man  out  in  old  Sangamon  County,  Illinois.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  he  derived  great  power  from  the  aptness  of  these 
stories.  Some  one  has  said  that  "  his  illustrations  were  ro- 
mance and  pathos,  fun  and  logic,  all  welded  together."  His 
bubbling  humor,  which  played  unceasing  accompaniment  to 
his  logic,  smoothed  the  way  to  conviction  and  won  for  him 
many  a  forensic  contest.  "Yet,"  says  Carl  Schurz,  "his 
greatest  charm  consisted  in  the  power  of  his  individuality. 
That  charm  did  not,  in  the  ordinary  way,  appeal  to  the  ear 
or  the  eye.  ...  He  commanded  none  of  the  outward  graces 
of  oratory  as  they  are  commonly  understood.  His  charm  was 
of  a  different  kind.  It  flowed  from  the  rare  depth  and  genu- 
ineness of  his  convictions,  and  his  sympathy,  the  strongest 
element  in  his  nature." 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN  287 

In  personal  appearance  Lincoln  was  not  comely.  He  was 
very  tall,  thin  chested,  slightly  stooped,  gaunt,  and  awkward 
in  his  movements.  His  eyes  were  gray  and  deep-set  under 
heavy  eyebrows.  His  hair  was  dark  and  straight ;  his  face 
was  lank  and  pale  and  wore  a  sad  expression,  and  the  lines 
deepened  as  he  advanced  in  life.  His  voice  was  a  high-pitched 
tenor,  almost  falsetto  in  character.  Yet  it  was  so  penetrating 
and  had  such  carrying  power  that  he  was  easily  understood 
where  others  failed.  He  says  of  himself  in  his  own  short 
autobiography:  "  If  any  personal  description  of  me  is  thought 
desirable  it  may  be  said  that  I  am  in  height  six  feet  four  inches, 
nearly ;  lean  in  flesh,  weighing  on  an  average  one  hundred 
eighty  pounds  ;  dark  complexion,  with  coarse  black  hair  and 
gray  eyes.    No  other  marks  or  brands  remembered." 

What  was  there  in  this  singular  personality  which  grew  m 
attractiveness  as  he  began  to  speak.?  William  Herndon,  his 
law  partner,  has  this  to  say  on  this  point :  ''At  first  he  was 
very  awkward  and  it  seemed  a  real  labor  to  adjust  himself  to 
his  surroundings.  He  struggled  for  a  time  under  a  feeling 
of  apparent  diffidence  and  sensitiveness.  ...  As  he  moved 
along  in  his  speech  he  became  freer  and  less  uneasy  in  his 
movements ;  to  that  extent  he  was  graceful.  .  .  .  There  was 
a  world  of  meaning  and  emphasis  in  his  long  bony  finger  as 
he  dotted  the  ideas  on  the  minds  of  his  hearers.  .  .  .  He 
never  ranted,  never  walked  backward  and  forward  on  the 
platform.  ...  As  he  proceeded  with  his  speech  his  voice 
lost  in  a  measure  its  former  acute  and  shrilling  pitch,  and 
mellowed  into  a  more  harmonious  and  pleasant  sound.  His 
form  expanded,  and  notwithstanding  the  sunken  breast,  he 
rose  up  a  splendid  and  imposing  figure.  .  .  .  His  gray  eyes 
flashed  with  the  fire  of  his  profound  thoughts,  and  his  uneasy 
movements  and  diffident  manner  sunk  themselves  beneath 
the  wave  of  righteous  indignation  that  came  sweeping  over 


288  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

him.  .  .  .  Every  lineament  of  his  face,  so  ill-formed,  grew 
brilliant  and  expressive,  and  you  had  before  you  a  man  of  rare 
power  and  strong  magnetic  influence."  Horace  White  declares 
that  "the  inspiration  that  possessed  him  took  possession  of 
his  hearers  also.  His  speaking  went  to  the  heart  because  it 
came  from  the  heart.  I  have  heard  celebrated  orators  who 
could  start  thunders  of  applause  without  changing  any  man's 
opinion.  Mr.  Lincoln's  eloquence  was  of  the  higher  type 
which  produced  conviction  in  others  because  of  the  conviction 
of  the  speaker  himself." 

Not  only  was  his  speaking  dignified,  clear,  and  impressive, 
but  it  contained  another  prime  element  of  oratory — directness. 
He  conversed  with  his  audience  as  he  would  with  a  friend 
close  at  hand,  looking  at  the  people  and  making  his  words 
carry  a  personal  message  to  each  listener.  The  people  liked 
his  frank,  open  way,  and  were  willing  to  be  led  by  him  because 
of  his  honesty  and  integrity  of  purpose  and  his  uncommon 
common  sense.  His  success  as  a  lawyer  was  due  to  his  ability 
to  convince  the  court  and  the  jury  of  the  fairness  of  his  cause, 
and  it  must  be  said  to  his  everlasting  credit  that  he  refused 
to  take  a  case  the  justness  of  which  did  not  appeal  to  him. 
He  would  not  yield  to  the  temptation  to  misrepresent  a  case, 
and  if  he  was  unable  to  bring  the  parties  to  a  settlement  out 
of  court  he  would  drop  the  case  entirely.  His  reputation  for 
honesty  and  fairness  gave  him  a  prestige  with  the  courts,  the 
influence  of  which  it  was  difficult  for  his  opponents  to  over- 
come. His  heroic  devotion  to  principle,  his  love  of  justice 
and  fair  play,  his.  sympathy  and  good  humor  were  qualities 
that  appealed  to  the  hearts  of  the  masses  and  made  his 
oratory  supremely  effective. 

His  greatest  triumph,  that  which  spread  his  fame  through- 
out the  land,  was  the  series  of  debates  with  Senator  Douglas, 
which  one  historian  has  called  "  the  most  characteristic  and 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN  289 

at  the  same  time  most  creditable  incident  in  our  national  his- 
tory." The  immediate  goal  was  the  senatorship  of  Illinois. 
There  were  seven  joint  debates  in  different  congressional 
districts  of  the  state.  Though  Lincoln  received  the  popular 
vote  by  a  majority  of  four  thousand  at  the  election,  the  com- 
plexion of  the  legislature  was  such  as  to  give  the  senatorship 
to  Douglas  by  a  slight  majority.  But  it  was  the  influence  of 
these  remarkable  speeches  that  won  Lincoln  the  Presidency. 
Unknown  outside  the  state  of  Illinois  at  the  time  he  entered  the 
canvass,  his  clear  logic  and  convincing  arguments  in  this  great 
political  debate  won  him  recognition  throughout  the  United 
States.  "  His  defeat,"  says  Watterson,  "counted  for  more  than 
Douglas's  victory,  for  it  made  him  the  logical  and  successful 
candidate  for  President."  The  reputation  that  he  had  gained 
and  the  probability  that  he  would  have  a  large  following  at 
the  national  Republican  convention  led  the  party  leaders  in 
New  York  to  invite  him  to  speak  at  Cooper  Institute.  "  It 
was  a  great  audience,"  says  Joseph  Choate,  "  including  all  the 
noted  men,  all  the  learned  and  cultured  of  his  party  in  New 
York  —  editors,  clergymen,  statesmen,  lawyers,  merchants, 
critics.  They  were  all  curious  to  hear  him.  His  fame  as  a 
powerful  speaker  had  preceded  him.  ...  He  was  equal  to 
the  occasion.  When  he  spoke  he  was  transformed  ;  his  eye 
kindled,  his  voice  rang,  his  face  shone  and  seemed  to  light 
up  the  whole  assembly.  .  .  .  With  no  attempt  at  ornament 
or  rhetoric,  without  parade  or  pretense,  he  spoke  straight  to 
the  point.  If  any  came  expecting  the  turgid  eloquence  or  the 
ribaldry  of  the  frontier,  they  must  have  been  startled  at  the 
earnest  and  sincere  purity  of  his  utterances.  It  was  marvelous 
to  see  how  this  untutored  man,  by  mere  self-discipline  and  the 
chastening  of  his  own  spirit,  had  outgrown  all  meretricious 
arts,  and  found  his  way  to  the  grandeur  and  strength  of 
absolute  simplicity." 


290  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

So  great  was  his  success  in  the  Cooper  Institute  speech 
that  Lincoln  was  invited  to  make  several  addresses  in  New 
England.  The  professor  of  English  at  Yale  University,  who 
had  heard  Lincoln  in  New  York,  was  so  attracted  by  his  style- 
that  he  followed  him  on  his  New  England  tour,  took  copious 
notes,  and  then  lectured  to  his  classes  on  the  clearness  force, 
and  effectiveness  of  Lincoln's  style. 

Henry  Watterson  declares  that  he  was  not  only  a  master  of 
English  prose  and  the  "  equal  of  any  man  who  ever  wrote' 
his  mother  tongue,"  but  he  was  also  a  "  prose  poet,"  and 
cites  as  a  conclusive  example  the  speech  at  Gettysburg,  "as 
short  as  it  is  sublime  ;  like  a  chapter  of  Holy  Writ,  it  can 
never  grow  old  or  stale." 

But  the  quality  of  all  qualities  which  gave  Lincoln  suprem- 
acy as  an  orator  was  his  stanch  character  and  his  fixed  de- 
termination to  carry  out  the  right  as  God  gave  him  to  see 
the  right.  This  is  clearly  shown  in  his  utterance  at  New 
Orleans,  when  he  witnessed  for  the  first  time  the  sale  of  slaves 
from  the  auction  block.  He  turned  to  a  friend  and  said,  "If 
I  ever  get  a  chance  to  hit  that  institution,  I'll  hit  it  hard." 
And  on  another  occasion  he  exclaimed,  "I'll  make  the 
ground  of  this  country  too  hot  for  the  footstep  of  a  slave." 
Time  vindicated  his  conclusions,  and  now  we  revere  him  as  a 
statesman.  His  love  of  the  masses,  his  tenderness,  his  sym- 
pathy with  the  plain  folks,  as  he  was  wont  to  call  them,  made 
the  people  trust  him  implicitly  as  one  of  themselves,  and 
follow  his  leadership  through  the  vicissitudes  of  a  great  civil 
conflict.  His  simple  character,  his  integrity,  his  tenacity  of 
principle,  his  strong  magnetic  influence,  his  balance  of  head, 
conscience,  and  heart,  made  his  oratory  a  living,  moving  force, 
and  gave  his  speeches  a  permanent  place  in  the  literature 
of  the  world. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  29 1 


POLITICAL  ISSUES 

The  selections  chosen  from  Lincoln  are  taken,  one  from  each  of  the 
seven  speeches  made  in  his  famous  joint  debates  with  Stephen  A.  Douglas 
in  their  campaign  for  the  office  of  United  States  senator  from  Illinois. 
The  election  resulted  in  a  small  popular  majority  for  Lincoln,  but  Douglas, 
owing  to  the  peculiar  districting  of  the  state,  was  chosen  senator  by 
the  legislature.  It  is  generally  conceded,  however,  that  the  reputation 
gained  by  Lincoln  in  these  speeches  secured  for  him  the  nomination  and 
election  to  the  Presidency. 

L    THE  HOUSE  DIVIDED 

This  speech  was  delivered  at  Ottawa,  Illinois,  August  21,  1858,  in  reply 
to  the  opening  speech  of  Douglas.  Douglas  had  charged  Lincoln  with  main- 
taining revolutionary  doctrines  in  a  speech  at  Springfield,  in  which  he  de- 
clared that  "  a  house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand." 

I  have  no  purpose,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  to  interfere  with 
the  institution  of  slavery  in  the  states  where  it  exists.  I  believe  I 
have  no  lawful  right  to  do  so,  and  I  have  no  inclination  to  do  so.  I 
have  no  purpose  to  introduce  political  and  social  equality  between  the 
white  and  the  black  races.  There  is  a  physical  difference  between 
the  two,  which,  in  my  judgment,  will  probably  forever  forbid  their 
living  together  upon  the  footing  of  perfect  equality ;  and  inasmuch 
as  it  becomes  a  necessity  that  there  must  be  a  difference,  I  am  in 
favor  of  the  race  to  which  I  belong  having  the  superior  position, 
I  have  never  said  anything  to  the  contrary,  but  I  hold  that,  not- 
withstanding all  this,  there  is  no  reason  in  the  world  why  the  negro 
is  not  entitled  to  all  the  natural  rights  enumerated  in  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  —  the  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit 
of  happiness.  I  hold  that  he  is  as  much  entitled  to  these  as  the 
white  man.  I  agree  with  Judge  Douglas  that  the  negro  is  not  my 
equal  in  many  respects  —  certainly  not  in  color",  perhaps  not  in 
moral  or  intellectual  endowment.  But  in  the  right  to  eat  the  bread, 
without  the  leave  of  anybody  else,  which  his  own  hand  earns,  he  is 
my  equal  and  the  equal  of  Judge  Douglas,  and  the  equal  of  every 
living  man. 


292  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

The  Judge  has  read  from  my  speech  in  Springfield  in  which  I 
say  that  "  a  house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand."  Does  the 
Judge  say  it  can  stand  ?  I  would  like  to  know  if  it  is  his  opinion 
that  a  house  divided  against  itself  can  stand.  If  he  does,  then  there 
is  a  question  of  veracity,  not  between  him  and  me,  but  between  the 
Judge  and  an  authority  of  a  somewhat  higher  character. 

I  know  that  the  Judge  may  readily  enough  agree  with  me  that 
the  maxim  which  was  put  forth  by  the  Saviour  is  true,  but  he  may 
allege  that  I  misapply  it ;  and  the  Judge  has  a  right  to  urge  that 
in  my  application  I  do  misapply  it,  and  then  I  have  a  right  to  show 
that  I  do  not  misapply  it.  When  he  undertakes  to  say  that  because 
I  think  this  nation,  so  far  as  the  question  of  slavery  is  concerned, 
will  all  become  one  thing  or  all  the  other,  I  am  in  favor  of  bringing 
about  a  dead  uniformity  in  the  various  states  in  all  their  institu- 
tions, he  argues  erroneously.  The  great  variety  of  the  local  institu- 
tions in  the  states,  springing  from  differences  in  the  soil,  differences 
in  the  face  of  the  country,  and  in  the  climate,  are  bonds  of  union. 
They  do  not  make  "'  a  house  divided  against  itself,"  but  they  make 
a  house  united.  If  they  produce  in  one  section  of  the  country  what 
is  called  for  by  the  wants  of  another  section,  and  this  other  section 
can  supply  the  wants  of  the  first,  they  are  not  matters  of  discord 
but  bonds  of  union.  But  can  this  question  of  slavery  be  considered 
as  among  these  varieties  in  the  institutions  of  the  country  ?  I  leave 
it  to  you  to  say  whether,  in  the  history  of  our  government,  this  in- 
stitution of  slavery  has  not  always  failed  to  be  a  bond  of  union, 
and,  on  the  contrary,  been  an  apple  of  discord  and  an  element  of 
division  in  the  house.  I  ask  you  to  consider  whether,  so  long  as 
the  moral  constitution  of  men's  minds  shall  continue  to  be  the 
same,  after  this  generation  and  assemblage  shall  sink  into  the  grave, 
and  another  race  shall  arise  with  the  same  moral  and  intellectual 
development  we  have  —  whether,  if  that  institution  is  standing  in 
the  same  irritating  position  in  which  it  now  is,  it  will  not  continue 
an  element  of  division  ? 

If  so,  then  I  have  a  right  to  say  that,  in  regard  to  this  question, 
the  Union  is  a  house  divided  against  itself ;  and  when  the  Judge 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN  293 

reminds  me  that  I  have  often  said  to  him  that  the  institution  of 
slavery  has  existed  for  eighty  years  in  some  states,  and  yet  it  does 
not  exist  in  some  others,  I  agree  to  the  fact,  and  I  account  for  it 
by  looking  at  the  position  in  which  our  fathers  originally  placed  it 
—  restricting  it  from  the  new  territories  where  it  had  not  gone, 
and  legislating  to  cut  off  its  source  by  the  abrogation  of  the  slave 
trade,  thus  putting  the  seal  of  legislation  against  its  spread.  The 
public  mind  did  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  was  in  the  course  of 
ultimate  extinction.  But  lately,  I  think  that  he  and  those  acting 
with  him  have  placed  that  institution  on  a  new  basis,  which  looks 
to  the  perpetuity  and  nationalization  of  slavery.  And  while  it  is 
placed  upon  this  new  basis,  I  say  that  I  believe  we  shall  not  have 
peace  upon  the  question  until  the  opponents  of  slavery  arrest  the 
further  spread  of  it,  and  place  it  where  the  public  mind  shall  rest 
in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction ;  or,  on 
the  other  hand,  that  its  advocates  will  push  it  forward  until  it  shall 
become  alike  lawful  in  all  the  states,  old  as  well  as  new,  north  as  well 
as  south.  Now  I  believe  if  we  could  arrest  the  spread,  and  place  it 
where  Washington  and  Jefferson  and  Madison  placed  it,  it  would 
be  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction,  and  the  public  mind  would, 
as  for  eighty  years  past,  believe  that  it  was  in  the  course  of  ultimate 
extinction.  The  crisis  would  be  past,  and  the  institution  might  be 
let  alone  in  the  states  where  it  exists,  yet  it  would  be  going  out  of 
existence  in  the  way  best  for  both  the  black  and  the  white  races. 

n.    THE  NEBRASKA  POLICY 

This  speech  was  delivered  at  Freeport,  Illinois,  August  27,  1858.  Judge 
Douglas  declared  that  it  was  the  right  of  every  state  to  come  into  the 
Union  with  or  without  slavery,  as  the  people  might  see  fit.  This  was  in 
brief  the  substance  of  the  Nebraska  doctrine  which  Lincoln  beHeved  would 
tend  to  spread  and  perpetuate  slavery. 

My  friends,  I  come  to  that  portion  of  the  Judge's  speech  which 
he  has  devoted  to  the  various  resolutions  and  platforms  that  have 
been  adopted  in  the  different  counties,  in  the  different  congressional 
districts,  and  in  the  Illinois  legislature  —  which  he  supposes  are  at 


294  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

variance  with  the  positions  I  have  assumed  before  you  to-day.  It 
is  true  that  many  of  ihese  resolutions  are  at  variance  with  the 
positions  I  have  here  assumed.  All  I  have  to  ask  is  that  we  talk 
reasonably  and  rationally  about  it.  I  happen  to  know,  the  Judge's 
opinion  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding,  that  I  have  never  tried  to 
conceal  my  opinions,  nor  tried  to  deceive  any  one  in  reference  to 
them.  He  may  go  and  examine  all  the  members  who  voted  for 
me  for  United  States  senator  in  1855.  They  were  pledged  to 
certain  things  here  at  home,  and  were  determined  to  have  pledges 
from  me,  and  if  he  will  find  any  of  these  persons  who  will  tell  him 
anything  inconsistent  with  what  I  say  now,  I  will  retire  from  the 
race  and  give  him  no  more  trouble. 

The  plain  truth  is  this :  At  the  introduction  of  the  Nebraska 
policy  we  believed  there  was  a  new  era  being  introduced  in  th.e 
history  of  the  republic,  which  tended  to  the  spread  and  perpetua- 
tion of  slavery.  But  in  our  opposition  to  that  measure  we  did  not 
agree  with  one  another  in  everything.  The  people  in  the  north 
end  of  the  state  were  for  stronger  measures  of  opposition  than  we 
of  the  central  and  southern  portions  of  the  state,  but  we  were  all 
opposed  to  the  Nebraska  doctrine.  We  had  that  one  feeling  and 
that  one  sentiment  in  common.  These  meetings  which  the  Judge 
has  alluded  to,  and  the  resolutions  he  has  read  from,  were  local, 
and  did  not  spread  over  the  whole  state.  We  at  last  met  together 
in  1856,  from  all  parts  of  the  state,  and  we  agreed  upon  a  common 
platform.  You  who  held  more  extreme  notions  either  yielded 
those  notions,  or,  if  not  wholly  yielding  them,  agreed  to  yield  them 
practically,  for  the  sake  of  embodying  the  opposition  to  the  measures 
which  the  opposite  party  were  pushing  forward  at  that  time.  We  met 
you  then,  and  if  there  was  anything  yielded,  it  was  for  practical  pur- 
poses. We  agreed  then  upon  a  platform  for  the  party  throughout 
the  entire  state  of  Illinois,  and  now  we  are  all  bound,  as  a  party,  to 
that  platform.  And  I  say  here  to  you,  if  any  one  expects  of  me, 
in  the  case  of  my  election,  that  I  will  do  anything  not  signified  by 
our  Republican  platform  and  my  answers  here  to-day,  I  tell  you 
very  frankly  that  person  will  be  deceived.    I  do  not  ask  for  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  295 

vote  of  any  one  who  supposes  that  I  have  secret  purposes  or 
pledges  that  I  dare  not  speak  out.  Cannot  the  Judge  be  satisfied  ? 
If  he  fears,  in  the  unfortunate  case  of  my  election,  that  my  going  to 
Washington  will  enable  me  to  advocate  sentiments  contrary  to  those 
which  I  expressed  when  you  voted  for  and  elected  me,  I  assure 
him  that  his  fears  are  wholly  needless  and  groundless.  Is  the  Judge 
really  afraid  of  any  such  thing  ?  I  '11  tell  you  what  he  is  afraid  of. 
He  is  afraid  we  '11  all  pull  together.  This  is  what  alarms  him  more 
than  anything  else.  For  my  part,  I  do  hope  that  all  of  us,  enter- 
taining a  common  sentiment  in  opposition  to  what  appears  to  us 
a  design  to  nationalize  and  perpetuate  slavery,  will  waive  minor 
differences  on  questions  which  either  belong  to  the  dead  past  or 
the  "distant  future,  and  all  pull  together  in  this  struggle.  What  are 
your  sentiments  ?  If  it  be  true  that  on  the  ground  which  I  occupy 
—  ground  which  I  occupy  as  frankly  and  boldly  as  Judge  Douglas 
does  his  —  my  views,  though  partly  coinciding  with  yours,  are  not  as 
perfectly  in  accordance  with  your  feelings  as  his  are,  I  do  say  to  you 
in  all  candor,  go  for  him  and  not  for  me.  I  hope  to  deal  in  all  things 
fairly  with  Judge  Douglas,  and  with  the  people  of  the  state,  in  this 
contest.  And  if  I  should  never  be  elected  to  any  office,  I  trust  I 
may  go  down  with  no  stain  of  falsehood  upon  my  reputation. 

III.    NATIONALIZING   SLAVERY 

This  speech  was  delivered  at  Jonesboro,  Illinois,  September  15,  1858. 
Judge  Douglas  makes  this  statement  in  his  opening  speech:  "I  never 
have  inquired,  and  never  will  inquire,  whether  a  new  state  applying  for 
admission  has  slavery  or  not  for  one  of  her  institutions."  This  was  equiva- 
lent to  saying  that  as  far  as  he  was  concerned  slavery  might  extend  into 
the  Northern  states. 

Judge  Douglas  asks,  "  Why  can't  this  Union  endure  perma- 
nently, half  slave  and  half  free  ? "  I  have  said  that  I  supposed  it 
could  not,  and  I  will  try  to  give  briefly  some  of  the  reasons  for 
entertaining  that  opinion.  Another  form  of  his  question  is,  "  Why 
can't  we  let  it  stand  as  our  fathers  placed  it  ? "  That  is  the  exact 
difficulty  between  us.    I  say  that  Judge  Douglas  and  his  friends 


296  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

have  changed  it  from  the  position  in  which  our  fathers  originally 
placed  it.  I  say,  in  the  way  our  fathers  originally  left  the  slavery 
question  the  institution  was  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction, 
and  the  public  mind  rested  in  the  belief  that  it  was  in  the  course 
of  ultimate  extinction.  I  say  when  this  government  was  first  estab- 
lished it  was  the  policy  of  its  founders  to  prohibit  the  spread  of 
slavery  into  the  new  territories  of  the  United  States,  where  it  had 
not  existed.  But  Judge  Douglas  and  his  friends  have  broken  up 
that  policy,  and  placed  it  upon  a  new  basis  by  which  it  is  to  become 
national  and  perpetual.  All  I  have  asked  or  desired  anywhere  is 
that  it  should  be  placed  back  again  upon  the  basis  that  the  fathers 
of  our  government  originally  placed  it  upon.  I  have  no  doubt  that 
it  would  become  extinct,  for  all  time  to  come,  if  we  but  readopted 
the  policy  of  the  fathers  by  restricting  it  to  the  limits  it  has  already 
covered  —  restricting  it  from  the  new  territories. 

I  do  not  wish  to  dwell  at  great  length  on  this  branch  of  the 
subject  at  this  time,  but  allow  me  to  repeat  one  thing  that  I  have 
stated  before.  Brooks,  the  man  who  assaulted  Senator  Sumner 
on  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  and  who  was  complimented  with  din- 
ners, and  silver  pitchers,  and  gold-headed  canes,  and  a  good  many 
other  things  for  that  feat,  in  one  of  his  speeches  declared  that 
when  this  government  was  originally  established  nobody  expected 
that  the  institution  of  slavery  would  last  until  this  day.  That  was 
but  the  opinion  of  one  man,  but  it  was  such  an  opinion  as  we  can 
never  get  from  Judge  Douglas,  or  anybody  in  favor  of  slavery  in 
the  North  at  all.  You  can  sometimes  get  it  from  a  Southern  man. 
He  said  at  the  same  time  that  the  framers  of  our  government  did 
not  have  the  knowledge  that  experience  has  taught  us  —  that  ex- 
perience and  the  invention  of  the  cotton  gin  have  taught  us  that 
the  perpetuation  of  slavery  is  a  necessity.  He  insisted,  therefore, 
upon  its  being  changed  from  the  basis  upon  which  the  fathers 
of  the  government  left  it  to  the  basis  of  its  perpetuation  and 
nationalization. 

I  insist  that  this  is  the  difference  between  Judge  Douglas 
and  myself  —  that  Judge  Douglas  is  helping  that  change  along. 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN  297 

Any  one  who  will  read  his  speech  of  the  twenty-second  of  last 
March  will  see  that  he  there  makes  an  open  confession,  showing 
that  he  set  about  fixing  the  institution  upon  an  altogether  different 
set  of  principles.  I  think  I  have  fully  answered  him  when  he  asks 
me  why  we  cannot  let  it  alone  upon  the  basis  where  our  fathers  left 
it,  by  showing  that  he  has  himself  changed  the  whole  policy  of  the 
government  in  that  regard. 

He  tries  to  persuade  us  that  there  must  be  a  variety  in  the 
different  institutions  of  the  states  of  the  Union ;  that  that  variety 
necessarily  proceeds  from  the  variety  of  soil,  climate,  of  the  face 
of  the  country,  and  the  difference  in  the  natural  features  of  the 
states.  I  agree  to  all  that.  Have  these  very  matters  ever  pro- 
duced any  difficulty  amongst  us }  Not  at  all.  Have  we  ever  had 
any  quarrel  over  the  fact  that  they  have  laws  in  Louisiana  designed 
to  regulate  the  commerce  that  springs  from  the  production  of. 
sugar  ?  or  because-'we  have  a  different  class  relative  to  the  produc- 
tion of  flour  in  this  state  ?  Llave  they  produced  any  differences  ? 
Not  at  all.  They  are  the  very  cements  of  this  Union.  They  don't 
make  the  house  a  house  divided  against  itself.  They  are  the  props 
that  hold  up  the  house  and  sustain  the  Union. 

But  has  it  been  so  with  this  element  of  slavery  ?  Have  we  not 
always  had  quarrels  and  difficulties  over  it?  And  when  will  we 
cease  to  have  quarrels  over  it?  Like  causes  produce  like  effects. 
It  is  worth  while  to  observe  that  we  have  generally  had  a  com- 
parative peace  upon  the  slavery  question,  and  that  there  has  been 
no  cause  for  alarm  until  it  was  excited  by  the  effort  to  spread  slav- 
ery into  new  territory.  Whenever  it  has  been  limited  to  its  present 
bounds,  and  there  has  been  no  effort  to  spread  it,  there  has  been 
peace.  All  the  trouble  and  convulsion  has  proceeded  from  efforts 
to  spread  it  over  more  territory.  It  was  thus  at  the  date  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise.  It  was  so  again  with  the  annexation  of 
Texas ;  so  with  the  territory  acquired  by  the  Mexican  war ;  and 
it  is  so  now.  Whenever  there  has  been  an  effort  to  spread  it 
there  has  been  agitation  and  resistance.  Now  I  appeal  to  this  audi- 
ence as  rational  men,  whether  we  have  reason  to  expect  that  the 


298  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

agitation  in  regard  to  this  subject  will  cease  while  the  causes  that 
tend  to  reproduce  agitation  are  actively  at  work.  Will  not  the 
same  cause  that  produced  agitation  in  1820,  when  the  Missouri 
Compromise  was  formed,  —  that  which  produced  the  agitation 
upon  the  annexation  of  Texas,  and  at  other  times,  —  work  out 
the  same  results  always  ?  Do  you  think  that  the  nature  of  man 
will  be  changed  —  that  the  same  causes  that  produced  agitation 
at  one  time  will  not  have  the  same  effect  at  another? 

This  has  been  the  result  so  far  as  my  observation  of  the  slavery 
question  and  my  reading  in  history  extend.  What  right  have  we 
then  to  hope  that  the  trouble  will  cease,  that  the  agitation  will 
come  to  an  end,  until  it  shall  either  be  placed  back  where  it 
originally  stood,  and  where  the  fathers  originally  placed  it,  or,  on 
the  other  hand,  until  it  shall  entirely  master  all  opposition  ?  This 
is  the  view  I  entertain,  and  this  is  the  reason  why  I  entertained  it 
in  my  Springfield  speech. 

IV.    SOCIAL  INEQUALITIES 

This  speech  was  delivered  at  Charleston,  Illinois,  September  18,  1858. 
Lincoln,  in  answer  to  strictures  of  Judge  Douglas  in  regard  to  social  and 
political  equality  of  the  races,  replies  as  follows : 

While  I  was  at  the  hotel  to-day  an  elderly  gentleman  called 
upon  me  to  know  whether  I  was  really  in  favor  of  producing  a 
perfect  equality  between  the  negroes  and  white  people.  While  I 
had  not  proposed  to  myself  on  this  occasion  to  say  much  on  that 
subject,  yet  as  the  question  was  asked  me  I  thought  I  would 
occupy  perhaps  five  minutes  in  saying  something  in  regard  to  it. 
I  will  say  then  that  I  am  not,  nor  ever  have  been,  in  favor  of 
bringing  about  in  any  way  the  social  and  political  equality*  of  the 
white  and  black  races  —  that  I  am  not,  nor  ever  have  been,  in 
favor  of  making  voters  or  jurors  of  negroes,  nor  of  qualifying 
them  to  hold  oflfice,  nor  to  intermarry  with  white  people ;  and  I 
will  say  in  addition  to  this,  that  there  is  a  physical  difference  be- 
tween the  white  and  black  races  which  I  believe  will  forever  forbid 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN  299 

the  two  races  living  together  on  terms  of  social  and  political 
equality.  And  inasmuch  as  they  cannot  so  live,  while  they  do 
remain  together  there  must  be  the  position  of  superior  and  inferior, 
and  I  as  much  as  any  other  man  am  in  favor  of  having  the 
superior  position  assigned  to  the  white  race.  I  say  upon  this 
occasion  that  I  do  not  perceive  that  because  the  white  man  is  to 
have  the  superior  position  the  negro  should  be  denied  everything. 
I  do  not  understand  that  because  I  do  not  want  a  negro  woman 
for  a  slave  I  must  necessarily  want  her  for  a  wife.  My  under- 
standing is  that  I  can  just  let  her  alone.  I  am  now  in  my  fiftieth 
year,  and  I  certainly  never  have  had  a  black  woman  for  either  a 
slave  or  ^  wife.  So  it  seems  to  me  quite  possible  for  us  to  get 
along  without  making  either  slaves  or  wives  of  negroes.  I  will  add 
to  this  that  I  have  never  seen,  to  my  knowledge,  a  man,  woman, 
or  child  who  was  in  favor  of  producing  a  perfect  equality,  social 
and  political,  between  negroes  and  white  men.  I  will  also  add 
that  I  have  never  had  the  least  apprehension  that  I  or  my  friends 
would  marry  negroes  if  there  were  no  law  to  keep  them  from  it ; 
but  as  Judge  Douglas  and  his  friends  seem  to  be  in  great  appre- 
hension that  they  might,  if  there  were  no  law  to  keep  them  from 
it,  I  give  him  the  most  solemn  pledge  that  I  will  to  the  very  last 
stand  by  the  law  of  this  state,  which  forbids  the  marrying  of 
white  people  with  negroes.  I  will  add  one  further  word,  which  is 
this :  that  I  do  not  understand  that  there  is  any  place  where  an 
alteration  of  the  social  and  political  relations  of  the  negro  and  the 
white  man  can  be  made  except  in  the  state  legislature  —  not  in 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States ;  and  as  I  do  not  really  appre- 
hend the  approach  of  any  such  thing  myself,  and  as  Judge 
Douglas  seems  to  be  in  constant  horror  that  some  such  danger  is 
rapidly  approaching,  I  propose,  as  the  best  means  to  prevent  it, 
that  the  Judge  be  kept  at  home  and  placed  in  the  state  legislature 
to  fight  the  measure.  I  do  not  propose  dwelling  longer  at  this 
time  on  the  subject. 


300  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

V.  DISTINCTION  OF  PARTIES 

This  speech  was  delivered  in  Galesburg,  IIHnois,  October  7,  1858. 
Lincoln  makes  clear  in  this  speech  the  difference  between  the  two  great 
political  parties  on  the  paramount  issues  of  the  day. 

The  Judge  has  detained  us  a  while  in  regard  to  the  distinction 
between  his  party  and  our  party.  His  he  assumes  to  be  a  national 
party  —  ours  a  sectional  one.  He  does  this  in  asking  the  question 
whether  this  country  has  any  interest  in  the  maintenance  of  the 
Republican  Party  ?  He  assumes  that  our  party  is  altogether  sec- 
tional—  that  the  party  to  which  he  adheres  is  national;  and  the 
argument  is,  that  no  party  can  be  a  rightful  party  —  can  be  based 
upon  rightful  principles  —  unless  it  can  announce  its  principles 
everywhere.  I  presume  that  Judge  Douglas  could  not  go  into 
Russia  and  announce  the  doctrine  of  our  national  democracy ;  he 
could  not  denounce  the  doctrine  of  kings,  and  emperors,  and  mon- 
archies in  Russia ;  and  it  may  be  true  of  this  country,  that  in 
some  places  we  may  not  be  able  to  proclaim  a  doctrine  as  clearly 
true  as  the  truth  of  democracy,  because  there  is  a  section  so 
directly  opposed  to  it  that  they  will  not  tolerate  us  in  doing  so.  Is 
it  the  true  test  of  the  soundness  of  a  doctrine,  that  in  some  places 
people  won't  let  you  proclaim  it }  Is  that  the  way  to  test  the  truth 
of  any  doctrine  1  Why,  I  understood  that  at  one  time  the  people 
of  Chicago  would  not  let  Judge  Douglas  preach  a  certain  favorite 
doctrine  of  his.  I  commend  to  his  consideration  the  question, 
whether  he  takes  that  as  a  test  of  the  unsoundness  of  what  he 
wanted  to  preach. 

There  is  another  thing  to  which  I  wish  to  ask  attention  for  a 
little  while  on  this  occasion.  What  has  always  been  the  evidence 
brought  forward  to  prove  that  the  Republican  Party  is  a  sectional 
party  ?  The  main  one  was  that  in  the  Southern  portion  of  the 
Union  the  people  did  not  let  the  Republicans  proclaim  their  doc- 
trines among  them.  That  has  been  the  main  evidence  brought 
forward  —  that  they  had  no  supporters,  or  substantially  none,  in 
the  slave  states.    The  South  have  not  taken  hold  of  our  principles 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN  301 

as  we  announce  thenn ;  nor  does  Judge  Douglas  now  grapple  with 
those  principles.  We  have  a  Republican  state  platform,  laid  down 
in  Springfield  in  June  last,  stating  our  position  all  the  way  through 
the  questions  before  the  country.  We  are  now  far  advanced  in 
this  canvass.  Judge  Douglas  and  I  have  made  perhaps  forty 
speeches  apiece,  and  we  have  now  for  the  fifth  time  met  face  to 
face  in  debate,  and  up  to  this  day  I  have  not  found  either  Judge 
Douglas  or  any  friend  of  his  taking  hold  of  the  Republican  platform 
or  laying  his  fingers  upon  anything  in  it  that  is  wrong.  I  ask  you 
all  to  recollect  that.  Judge  Douglas  .turns  away  from  the  platform 
of  principles  to  the  fact  that  he  can  find  people  somewhere  who 
will  not  allow  us  to  announce  those  principles.  If  he  had  great 
confidence  that  our  principles  were  wrong,  he  would  take  hold  of 
them  and  demonstrate  them  to  be  wrong.  But  he  does  not  do  so. 
The  only  evidence  he  has  of  their  being  wrong  is  in  the  fact  that 
there  are  people  who  won't  allow  us  to  preach  them.  I  ask  again 
is  that  the  way  to  test  the  soundness  of  a  doctrine  ? 

I  ask  his  attention  also  to  the  fact  that  by  the  rule  of  nationality 
he  is  himself  fast  becoming  sectional.  I  ask  his  attention  to  the 
fact  that  his  speeches  would  not  go  as  current  now  south  of  the 
Ohio  River  as  they  have  foraierly  gone  there.  I  ask  his  attention 
to  the  fact  that  he  felicitates  himself  to-day  that  all  the  Democrats 
of  the  free  states  are  agreeing  with  him,  while  he  omits  to  tell  us 
that  the  Democrats  of  any  slave  state  agree  with  him.  If  he  has 
not  thought  of  this,  I  commend  to  his  consideration  the  evidence 
of  his  own  declaration,  on  this  day,  of  his  becoming  sectional  too. 
I  see  it  rapidly  approaching.  Whatever  may  be  the  result  of  this 
contest  between  Judge  Douglas  and  myself,  I  see  the  day  rapidly 
approaching  when  his  pill  of  sectionalism,  which  he  has  been 
thrusting  down  the  throats  of  Republicans  for  years  past,  will  be 
crowded  down  his  own  throat. 

The  Judge  tells  us  that  he  is  opposed  to  making  any  odious  dis- 
tinctions between  free  and  slave  states.  I  am  altogether  unaware 
that  the  Republicans  are  in  favor  of  making  any  odious  distinctions 
between  the  free  and  slave  states.    But  there  still  is  a  difference, 


302  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

I  think,  between  Judge  Douglas  and  the  Republicans  in  this.  I 
suppose  that  the  real  difference  between  Judge  Douglas  and  his 
friends,  and  the  Republicans  on  the  contrary,  is,  that  the  Judge  is 
not  in  favor  of  making  any  difference  between  slavery  and  liberty 
—  that  he  is  in  favor  of  eradicating,  of  pressing  out  of  view,  the 
questions  of  preference  in  his  country  for  free  or  slave  institutions  ; 
and  consequently  every  sentiment  he  utters  discards  the  idea  that 
there  is  any  wrong  in  slavery.  Everything  that  emanates  from  him 
or  his  coadjutors  in  their  course  of  policy  carefully  excludes  the 
thought  that  there  is  anything  wrong  in  slavery.  All  their  argu- 
ments, if  you  will  consider  them,  will  be  seen  to  exclude  the 
thought  that  there  is  anything  whatever  wrong  in  slavery.  If  you 
will  take  the  Judge's  speeches  and  select  the  short  and  pointed 
sentences  expressed  by  him,  —  as  his  declaration  that  he  "  don't 
care  whether  slavery  is  voted  up  or  down," —  you  will  see  at  once 
that  this  is  perfectly  logical,  if  you  do  not  admit  that  slavery  is 
wrong.  If  you  do  admit  that  it  is  wrong.  Judge  Douglas  cannot 
logically  say  he  don't  care  whether  a  wrong  is  voted  up  or  voted 
down.  Judge  Douglas  declares  that  if  any  community  want  slavery 
they  have  a  right  to  have  it.  He  can  say  that  logically,  if  he  says 
that  there  is  no  wrong  in  slavery ;  but  if  you  admit  that  there  is  a 
wrong  in  it,  he  cannot  logically  say  that  anybody  has  a  right  to  do 
wrong.  He  insists  that,  upon  the  score  of  equality,  the  owners  of 
slaves  and  owners  of  property  —  of  horses  and  every  other  sort  of 
property  —  should  be  alike  and  hold  them  alike  in  a  new  territory. 
That  is  perfectly  logical,  if  the  two  species  of  property  are  alike 
and  are  equally  founded  in  right.  But  if  you  admit  that  one  of 
them  is  wrong,  you  cannot  institute  any  equality  between  right  and 
wrong.  And  from -this  difference  of  sentiment,  the  belief  on  the 
part  of  one  that  the  institution  is  wrong,  and  a  policy  springing 
from  that  belief  which  looks  to  the  arrest  of  the  enlargement  of 
that  wrong;  and  this  other  sentiment,  that  it  is  no  wrong,  and  a 
policy  sprung  from  that  sentiment  which  will  tolerate  no  idea  of 
preventing  that  wrong  from  growing  larger,  and  looks  to  there 
never  being  an  end  of  it  through  all  the  existence  of  things,  arises 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  303 

the  real  difference  between  Judge  Douglas  and  his  friends  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  Republicans  on  the  other.  Now  I  confess 
myself  as  belonging  to  that  class  in  the  country  who  contemplate 
slavery  as  a  moral,  social,  and  political  evil,  having  due  regard  for 
its  actual  existence  among  us,  and  the  difficulties  of  getting  rid  of 
it  in  any  satisfactory  way,  and  for  all  the  constitutional  obligations 
which  have  been  thrown  about  it ;  but,  nevertheless,  desire  a  policy 
that  looks  to  the  prevention  of  it  as  a  wrong,  and  looks  hopefully 
to  the  time  when  as  a  wrong  it  may  come  to  an  end. 

When  we  acquired  territory  from  Mexico  in  the  Mexican  War, 
the  House  of  Representatives,  composed  of  the  immediate  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people,  all  the  time  insisted  that  the  territory  thus 
to  be  acquired  should  be  brought  in  upon  condition  that  slavery 
should  be  forever  prohibited  therein,  upon  the  terms  and  in  the 
language  that  slavery  had  been  prohibited  from  coming  into  this 
country.  That  was  insisted  upon  constantly,  and  never  failed  to  call 
forth  an  assurance  that  any  territory  thus  acquired  should  have 
that  prohibition  in  it,  so  far  as  the  House  of  Representatives  was 
concerned.  But  at  last  the  President  and  the  Senate  acquired  the 
territory  without  asking  the  House  of  Representatives  anything 
about  it,  and  took  it  without  that  prohibition.  They  have  the  power 
of  acquiring  territory  without  the  immediate  representatives  of  the 
people  being  called  upon  to  say  anything  about  it,  and  thus  fur- 
nishing a  very  apt  and  powerful  means  of  bringing  new  territory 
into  the  Union,  and,  when  it  is  once  brought  in,  involving  us  anew 
in  this  slavery  agitation.  It  is  therefore,  as  I  think,  a  very  im- 
portant question  for  the  consideration  of  the  American  people, 
whether  the  policy  of  bringing  in  additional  territory,  without  con- 
sidering at  all  how  it  will  operate  upon  the  safety  of  the  Union, 
in  reference  to  this  one  great  disturbing  element  in  our  national 
politics,  shall  be  adopted  as  the  policy  of  the  country.  You  will 
bear  in  mind  that  it  is  to  be  acquired,  according  to  the  Judge's 
view,  as  fast  as  it  is  needed,  and  the  indefinite  part  of  this  propo- 
sition is  that  we  have  only  Judge  Douglas  and  his  class  of  men  to 
decide  how  fast  it  is  needed.    We  have  no  clear  and  certain  way 


304  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

of  determining  or  demonstrating  how  fast  territory  is  needed  by 
the  necessities  of  the  country.  Whoever  wants  to  go  out  filibus- 
tering, then,  thinks  that  more  territory  is  needed.  Whoever  wants 
wider  slave  fields  feels  sure  that  some  additional  territory  is  needed 
as  slave  territory.  Then  it  is  as  easy  to  show  the  necessity  of  addi- 
tional slave  territory  as  it  is  to  assert  anything  that  is  incapable  of 
absolute  demonstration.  Whatever  motive  a  man  or  a  set  of  men 
may  have  for  making  annexation  of  property  or  territory,  it  is 
very  easy  to  assert,  but  much  less  to  disprove,  that  it  is  necessary 
for  the  wants  of  the  country. 

And  now  it  only  remains  for  me  to  say  that  I  think  it  is  a  very 
grave  question  for  the  people  of  this  Union  to  consider,  whether,  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  this  slavery  question  has  been  the  only  one 
that  has  ever  endangered  our  Republican  institutions,  the  only 
one  that  has  ever  threatened  or  menaced  a  dissolution  of  the  Union, 
that  has  ever  disturbed  us  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  us  fear  for 
the  perpetuity  of  our  liberty,  —  in  view  of  these  facts,  I  think  it  is 
an  exceedingly  interesting  and  important  question  for  this  people 
to  consider,  whether  we  shall  engage  in  the  policy  of  acquiring 
additional  territory,  discarding  altogether  from  our  consideration, 
while  obtaining  new  territory,  the  question  how  it  may  affect  us  in 
regard  to  this  the  only  endangering  element  to  our  liberties  and 
national  greatness.  The  Judge's  view  has  been  expressed.  I,  in 
my  answer  to  his  question,  have  expressed  mine.  I  think  it  will 
become  an  important  and  practical  question.  Our  views  are  be- 
fore the  public.  I  am  willing  and  anxious  that  they  should  con- 
sider them  fully  —  that  they  should  turn  it  about  and  consider  the 
importance  of  the  question,  and  arrive  at  a  just  conclusion  as  to 
whether  it  is  or  it  is  not  wise  in  the  people  of  this  Union,  in  the 
acquisition  of  new  territory,  to  consider  whether  it  will  add  to  the 
disturbance  that  is  existing  among  us,  whether  it  will  add  to  the  one 
only  danger  that  has  ever  threatened  the  perpetuity  of  the  Union 
or  of  our  own  liberties.  I  think  it  is  extremely  important  that 
they  shall  decide,  and  rightly  decide,  that  question  before  entering 
upon  that  policy. 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN  305 

VL    DISTURBING  ELEMENT  OF  SLAVERY 

This  speech  was  deHvered  at  Quincy,  Illinois,  October  13,  1858. 
Lincoln  states  his  conviction  very  forcibly  on  the  moral  status  of  slavery, 
and  meets  with  stinging  logic  Douglas's  assertion  that  he  "  does  n't  care 
whether  slavery  is  voted  up  or  voted  down." 

We  have  in  this  nation  the  element  of  domestic  slavery.  It  is 
a  matter  of  absolute  certainty  that  it  is  a  disturbing  element.  It 
is  the  opinion  of  all  the  great  men  who  have  expressed  an  opinion 
upon  it,  that  it  is  a  dangerous  element.  We  keep  up  a  controversy 
in  regard  to  it.  That  controversy  necessarily  springs  from  differ- 
ence of  opinion,  and  if  we  can  learn  exactly  —  can  reduce  to  the 
lowest  elements  —  what  that  difference  of  opinion  is,  we  perhaps 
shall  be  better  prepared  for  discussing  the  different  systems  of 
policy  that  we  would  propose  in  regard  to  that  disturbing  element. 
I  suggest  that  the  difference  of  opinion,  reduced  to  its  lowest  terms, 
is  no  other  than  the  difference  between  the  men  who  think  slavery 
a  wrong  and  those  who  do  not  think  it  wrong.  The  Republican 
party  think  it  wrong  —  we  think  it  is  a  moral,  a  social,  and  a  politi- 
cal wrong.  We  think  it  is  a  wrong  not  confining  itself  merely  to 
the  persons  or  the  states  where  it  exists,  but  that  it  is  a  wrong,  in 
its  tendency,  to  say  the  least,  that  extends  itself  to  the  existence  of 
the  whole  nation.  Because  we  think  it  wrong,  we  propose  a  course 
of  policy  that  shall  deal  with  it  as  a  wrong.  We  deal  with  it  as 
with  any  other  wrong,  in  so  i'ar  as  we  can  prevent  its  growing  any 
larger,  and  so  deal  with  it  that  in  the  run  of  time  there  may  be 
some  promise  of  an  end  to  it.  We  have  a  due  regard  to  the  actual 
presence  of  it  among  us  and  the  difficulties  of  getting  rid  of  ij  in 
any  satisfactory  way,  and  all  the  constitutional  obligations  thrown 
about  it.  I  suppose  that,  in  reference  both  to  its  actual  existence 
in  the  nation  and  to  our  constitutional  obligations,  we  have  no  right 
at  all  to  disturb  it  in  the  states  where  it  exists,  and  we  profess  that 
we  have  no  more  inclination  to  disturb  it  than  we  have  the  right 
to  do  it.  We  go  farther  than  that ;  we  don^  propose  to  disturb  it 
where,  in  one  instance,  we  think  the  Constitution  would  permit  us. 


3o6  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

We  think  the  Constitution  would  permit  us  to  disturb  it  in  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia.  Still  we  do  not  propose  to  do  that,  unless  it 
should  be  in  terms  which  I  don't  suppose  the  nation  is  very  likely 
soon  to  agree  to  —  the  terms  of  making  the  emancipation  gradual 
and  compensating  the  unwilling  owners.  Where  we  suppose  we 
have  the  constitutional  right  we  restrain  ourselves  in  reference  to 
the  actual  existence  of  the  institution  and  the  difficulties  thrown 
about  it.  We  also  oppose  it  as  an  evil  so  far  as  it  seeks  to  spread 
itself.  We  insist  on  the  policy  that  shall  restrict  it  to  its  present 
limits.  We  don't  suppose  that  in  doing  this  we  violate  anything 
due  to  the  actual  presence  of  the  institution,  or  anything  due  to 
the  constitutional  guaranties  thrown  around  it. 

I  will  say  now,  that  there  is  a  sentiment  in  the  country  contrary 
to  me  —  a  sentiment  which  holds  that  slavery  is  not  wrong,  and 
therefore  it  goes  for  the  policy  that  does  not  propose  dealing  with 
it  as  a  wrong.  That  policy  is  the  Democratic  policy,  and  that  senti- 
ment is  the  Democratic  sentiment.  If  there  be  a  doubt  in  the  mind 
of  any  one  of  this  vast  audience  that  this  is  really  the  central  idea 
of  the  Democratic  party,  in  relation  to  this  subject,  I  ask  him  to 
bear  with  me  while  I  state  a  few  things  tending,  as  I  think,  to 
prove  that  proposition.  In  the  first  place,  the  leading  man  —  I 
think  1  may  do  my  friend,  Judge  Douglas,  the  honor  of  calling 
him  such  —  advocating  the  present  Democratic  policy  never  himself 
says  it  is  wrong.  He  has  the  high  distinction,  so  far  as  I  know,  of 
never  having  said  slavery  is  either  right  or  wrong.  Almost  every- 
body else  says  one  or  the  other,  but  the  Judge  never  does.  Perhaps 
that  Democrat  who  says  he  is  as  much  opposed  to  slavery  as  I  am, 
will  tell  me  that  I  am  wrong  about  this.  I  wish  him  to  examine 
his  own  course  in  regard  to  this  matter  a  moment  and  then  see  if 
his  opinion  will  not  be  changed  a  little.  You  say  it  is  wrong ;  but 
don't  you  constantly  object  to  anybody  else  saying  so  ?  Do  you 
not  constantly  argue  that  this  is  not  the  right  place  to  oppose  it  ? 
You  say  it  must  not  be  opposed  in  the  free  states,  because  slavery 
is  not  here ;  it  must  not  be  opposed  in  the  slave  states,  because  it 
is  there  ;  it  must  not  be  opposed  in  politics,  because  that  will  make 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN  307 

a  fuss ;  it  must  not  be  opposed  in  the  pulpit,  because  it  is  not  re- 
ligion. Then  where  is  the  place  to  oppose  it  ?  There  is  no  suitable 
place  to  oppose  it.  There  is  no  plan  in  the  country  to  oppose  this 
evil  overspreading  the  continent,  which  you  say  yourself  is  coming. 
When  Judge  Douglas  says  he  "does  n't  care  whether  slavery  is  voted 
up  or  voted  down,"  whether  he  means  that  as  an  individual  expres- 
sion of  sentiment,  or  only  as  a  sort  of  statement  of  his  views  on 
national  policy,  it  is  alike  true  to  say  that  he  can  thus  argue  logi- 
cally if  he  does  n't  see  anything  wrong  in  it ;  but  he  cannot  say  so 
logically  if  he  admits  that  slavery  is  wrong.  He  cannot  say  that 
he  would  as  soon  see  a  wrong  voted  up  as  voted  down.  When 
Judge  Douglas  says  that  whoever  or  whatever  community  wants 
slaves,  they  have  a  right  to  have  them,  he  is  perfectly  logical  if  there 
is  nothing  wrong  in  the  institution ;  but  if  you  admit  that  it  is 
wrong,  he  cannot  logically  say  that  anybody  has  a  right  to  do 
wrong.  When  he  says  that  slave  property  and  horse  and  hog  prop- 
erty are  alike,  to  be  allowed  to  go  into  the  territories,  upon  the 
principle  of  equality,  he  is  reasoning  truly,  if  there  is  no  difference 
between  them  as  property ;  but  if  the  one  is  property,  held  right- 
fully, and  the  other  is  wrong,  then  there  is  no  equality  between  the 
right  and  wrong ;  so  that,  turn  it  in  any  way  you  can,  in  all  the 
arguments  sustaining  the  Democratic  policy,  and  in  that  policy  it- 
self, there  is  a  careful,  studied  exclusion  of  the  idea  that  there  is 
anything  wrong  in  slavery.  Let  us  understand  this.  I  am  not,  just 
here,  trying  to  prove  that  we  are  right  and  they  are  wrong.  I  have 
been  stating  where  we  and  they  stand,  and  trying  to  show  what  is 
the  real  difference  between  us ;  and  I  now  say  that  whenever  we 
can  get  the  question  distinctly  stated,  —  can  get  all  these  men  who 
believe  that  slavery  is  in  some  of  these  respects  wrong,  to  stand 
and  act  with  us  in  treating  it  as  a  wrong,  —  then,  and  not  till 
then,  I  think  we  will  in  some  way  come  to  an  end  of  this  slavery 
agitation. 


308  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

VII.    LIBERTY   AND    PROSPERITY 

This  selection  is  from  the  speech  of  Lincoln,  delivered  at  Alton, 
Illinois,  October  15,  1858.  Douglas  in  his  opening  speech  undertakes  to 
place  Lincoln  in  an  "  extremely  abolition  attitude."  He  so  garbles  Lin- 
coln's utterances  as  to  present  a  meaning  quite  different  from  that  intended. 
Lincoln  meets  the  argument  by  quoting  important  parts  omitted  by  Douglas. 
Douglas  is  also  greatly  exercised  over  the  Springfield  speech  of  Lincoln 
in  which  occurs  the  famous  quotation,  "  a  house  divided  against  itself 
cannot  stand."  Lincoln  declares  that  Douglas  wars  upon  that  speech  "  as 
Satan  wars  upon  the  Bible.    His  perversions  upon  it  are  endless." 

I  have  intimated  that  I  thought  agitation  would  not  cease  until 
a  crisis  should  have  been  reached  and  passed.  I  have  stated  in 
what  way  I  thought  it  would  be  reached  and  passed.  I  have  said 
that  it  might  go  one  way  or  the  other.  We  might,  by  arresting  the 
further  spread  of  slavery,  and  placing  it  where  the  fathers  originally 
placed  it,  put  it  where  the  public  mind  should  rest  in  the  belief  that 
it  was  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction.  Thus  the  agitation  may 
cease.  It  may  be  pushed  forward  until  it  shall  become  alike  lawful 
in  all  the  states,  old  as  well  as  new,  North  as  well  as  South.  I  have 
said,  and  I  repeat,  my  wish  is  that  the  further  spread  of  it  may  be 
arrested,  and  that  it  may  be  placed  where  the  public  mind  shall 
rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction.  I 
have  expressed  that  as  my  wish.  I  entertain  the  opinion,  upon 
evidence  sufficient  to  my  mind,  that  the  fathers  of  this  government 
placed  that  institution  where  the  public  mind  did  rest  in  the  belief 
that  it  was  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction.  Let  me  ask  why 
they  made  provision  that  the  source  of  slavery  —  the  African  slave 
trade  —  should  be  cut  off  at  the  end  of  twenty  years  t  Why  did 
they  make  provision  that  in  all  the  new  territory  we  owned  at  that 
time  slavery  should  be  forever  inhibited  ?  Why  stop  its  spread  in 
one  direction,  and  cut  off  its  source  in  another,  if  they  did  not  look 
to  its  being  placed  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction  ? 

This  is  part  of  the  evidence  that  the  fathers  of  the  government 
expected  and  intended  the  institution  of  slavery  to  come  to  an  end. 
They  expected  and  intended  that  it  should  be  in  the  course  of 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN  309 

ultimate  extinction.  And  when  I  say  that  I  desire  to  see  the  further 
spread  of  it  arrested,  I  only  say  I  desire  to  see  that  done  which 
the  fathers  have  first  done.  They  found  slavery  among  them,  and 
they  left  it  among  them  because  of  the  difficulty  —  the  absolute  im- 
possibility —  of  its  immediate  removal.  And  when  Judge  Douglas 
asks  me  why  we  cannot  let  it  remain  part  slave  and  part  free,  as 
the  fathers  of  the  government  made  it,  he  asks  a  question  based 
upon  an  assumption  which  is  itself  a  falsehood.  I  turn  and  ask 
him  why  he  was  driven  to  the  necessity  of  introducing  a  new  policy 
in  regard  to  it  ?  I  ask  him  why  he  could  not  let  it  remain  where 
our  fathers  placed  it  ?  I  ask  of  Judge  Douglas  and  his  friends 
why  we  shall  not  again  place  this  institution  upon  the  basis  on 
which  the  fathers  left  it  ?  I  have  not  only  made  the  declaration 
that  I  do  not  mean  to  produce  a  conflict  between  the  states,  but 
I  have  tried  to  show  by  fair  reasoning  that  I  propose  nothing  but 
what  has  a  most  peaceful  tendency.  The  quotation  that  I  hap- 
pened to  make  that  "  a  house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand," 
and  which  has  proved  so  offensive  to  the  Judge,  was  part  and 
parcel  of  the  same  thing.  He  tries  to  show  that  variety  in  the 
domestic  institutions  of  the  different  states  is  necessary  and  indis- 
pensable. I  do  not  dispute  it.  I  have  no  controversy  with  Judge 
Douglas  about  that.  I  shall  very  readily  agree  with  him  that  it 
would  be  foolish  for  us  to  insist  upon  having  a  cranberry  law  here, 
in  Illinois,  where  we  have  no  cranberries,  because  they  have  a  cran- 
berry law  in  Indiana,  where  they  have  cranberries.  I  should  insist 
that  it  would  be  exceedingly  wrong  in  us  to  deny  to  Virginia  the  right 
to  enact  oyster  laws,  where  they  have  oysters,  because  we  want 
no  such  laws  here.  If  we  here  raise  a  barrel  of  flour  more  than 
we  want,  and  the  Louisianians  raise  a  barrel  of  sugar  more  than 
they  want,  it  is  of  mutual  advantage  to  exchange.  That  produces 
commerce,  brings  us  together,  and  makes  us  better  friends.  We  like 
one  another  the  more  for  it.  These  mutual  accommodations  are  the 
cements  which  bind  together  the  different  parts  of  this  Union — that 
instead  of  being  a  thing  to  "  divide  the  house  "  they  tend  to  sustain 
it ;  they  are  the  props  of  the  house,  tending  always  to  hold  it  up. 


3IO  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

But  is  it  true  that  all  the  difficulty  and  agitation  we  have  in 
regard  to  this  institution  of  slavery  springs  from  office  seeking  — 
from  the  mere  ambition  of  politicians  ?  Is  that  the  truth  ?  How 
many  times  have  we  had  danger  from  this  question  ?  Go  back  to 
the  day  of  the  Missouri  Compromise.  Go  back  to  the  nullification 
question,  at  the  bottom  of  which  lay  this  same  slavery  question. 
Go  back  to  the  time  of  the  annexation  of  Texas.  Go  back  to  the 
troubles  that  led  to  the  Compromise  of  1850.  You  will  find  that 
every  time,  with  the  single  exception  of  the  nullification  question, 
they  sprang  from  an  endeavor  to  spread  this  institution.  There 
never  was  a  party  in  the  history  of  this  country,  and  there  prob- 
ably never  will  be,  of  sufficient  strength  to  disturb  the  general 
peace  of  the  country.  Parties  themselves  may  be  divided  and 
quarrel  on  minor  questions,  yet  division  extends  not  beyond  the  par- 
ties themselves.  But  does  not  this  question  make  a  disturbance 
outside  of  political  circles  ?  Does  it  not  enter  into  the  churches  and 
rend  them  asunder?  What  divided  the  great  Methodist  Church 
into  two  parts.  North  and  South  ?  What  has  raised  this  constant 
disturbance  in  every  Presbyterian  General  Assembly  that  meets  ? 
Is  it  not  this  same  mighty,  deep-seated  power,  that  somehow 
operates  on  the  minds  of  men,  exciting  and  stirring  them  up  in 
every  avenue  of  society  —  in  politics,  in  religion,  in  literature,  in 
morals,  in  all  the  manifold  relations  of  Ijfe  ?  Is  this  the  work  of 
politicians?  Is  that  irresistible  power,  which  for  fifty  years  has 
shaken  the  government  and  agitated  the  people,  to  be  stilled  and 
subdued  by  pretending  that  it  is  an  exceedingly  simple  thing,  and 
we  ought  not  to  talk  about  it  ?  If  you  will  get  everybody  else  to  stop 
talking  about  it,  I  assure  you  I  will  quit  before  they  have  half  done 
so.  But  where  is  the  philosophy  or  statesmanship  which  assumes 
that  you  can  quiet  that  disturbing  element  in  our  society  which 
has  disturbed  us  for  more  than  half  a  century,  which  has  been  the 
only  serious  danger  that  has  threatened  our  institutions  —  I  say, 
where  is  the  philosophy  or  the  statesmanship  based  on  the  assump- 
tion that  we  are  to  quit  talking  about  it,  and  that  the  public  mind 
is  all  at  once  to  cease  being  agitated  by  it  ?    Yet  this  is  the  policy 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN  311 

here  in  the  North  that  Douglas  is  advocating — that  we  are  to  care 
nothing  about  it !  I  ask  you  if  it  is  not  a  false  philosophy  ?  Is  it 
not  a  false  statesmanship  that  undertakes  to  build  up  a  system  of 
policy  upon  the  basis  of  caring  nothing  about  the  very  thing  that 
everybody  does  care  the  most  about  ?  —  a  thing  which  all  expe- 
rience has  shown  we  care  a  very  great  deal  about  ? 

The  Judge  alludes  very  often  in  the  course  of  his  remarks  to 
the  exclusive  right  which  the  states  have  to  decide  the  whole 
thing  for  themselves.  I  agree  with  him  very  readily  that  the 
different  states  have  that  right.  He  is  but  fighting  a  man  of 
straw  when  he  assumes  that  I  am  contending  against  the  right 
of  the  states  to  do  as  they  please  about  it.  Our  controversy  with 
him  is  in  regard  to  the  new  territories.  We  agree  that  when  the 
states  come  in  as  states  they  have  the  right  and  the  power  to  do 
as  they  please.  We  have  no  power  as  citizens  of  the  free  states, 
or  in  our  federal  capacity  as  members  of  the  federal  Union 
through  the  general  government,  to  disturb  slavery  in  the  states 
where  it  exists.  We  profess  constantly  that  we  have  no  more 
inclination  than  belief  in  the  power  of  the  government  to  disturb 
it ;  yet  we  are  driven  constantly  to  defend  ourselves  from  the 
assumption  that  we  are  warring  upon  the  rights  of  the  states. 
What  I  insist  upon  is,  that  the  new  territories  shall  be  kept  free 
from  it  while  in  the  territorial  condition.  Judge  Douglas  assumes 
that  we  have  no  interest  in  them  —  that  we  have  no  right  what- 
ever to  interfere.  I  think  we  have  some  interest.  I  think  that  as 
white  men  we  have.  Do  we  not  wish  for  an  outlet  for  our  surplus 
population,  if  I  may  so  express  myself }  Do  we  not  feel  an  interest 
in  getting  to  that  outlet  with  such  institutions  as  we  would  like  to 
have  prevail  there  ?  If  you  go  to  the  territory  opposed  to  slavery, 
and  another  man  comes  upon  the  same  ground  with  his  slave, 
upon  the  assumption  that  the  things  are  equal,  it  turns  out  that 
he  has  the  equal  right  all  his  way  and  you  have  no  part  of  it  your 
way.  If  he  goes  in  and  makes  it  a  slave  territory,  and  by  conse- 
quence a  slave  state,  is  it  not  time  that  those  who  desire  to  have 
it  a  free  state  were  on  equal  ground  ? 


312  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

The  real  issue  in  this  controversy  —  the  one  pressing  upon 
every  mind  —  is  the  sentiment  on  the  part  of  one  class  that  looks 
upon  the  institution  of  slavery  as  a  wrong,  and  of  another  class 
that  does  not  look  upon  it  as  a  wrong.  The  sentiment  that  con- 
templates the  institution  of  slavery  in  this  country  as  a  wrong,  is 
the  sentiment  of  the  Republican  party.  It  is  the  sentiment  around 
which  all  their  actions  —  all  their  arguments  circle  —  from  which 
all  their  propositions  radiate.  They  look  upon  it  as  being  a  moral, 
social,  and  political  wrong.  They  insist  that  it  should,  as  far  as 
may  be,  be  treated  as  a  wrong,  and  one  of  the  methods  of  treating 
it  as  a  wrong  is  to  make  provision  that  it  shall  grow  no  larger. 
Has  anything  ever  threatened  the  existence  of  this  Union  save 
and  except  this  very  institution  of  slavery?  What  is  it  that  we 
hold  most  dear  among  us }  Our  own  liberty  and  prosperity. 
What  has  ever  threatened  our  liberty  and  prosperity  save  and 
except  this  institution  of  slavery  ?  If  this  is  true,  how  do  you 
propose  to  improve  the  condition  of  things  by  enlarging  slavery  — 
by  spreading  it  out  and  making  it  bigger  ?  You  may  have  a  cancer 
upon  your  person  and  not  be  able  to  cut  it  out  lest  you  bleed  to 
death ;  but  surely  it  is  no  way  to  cure  it,  to  engraft  it  and  spread 
it  over  your  whole  body.  That  is  no  proper  way  of  treating  what 
you  regard  as  a  wrong. 

That  is  the  real  issue.  That  is  the  issue  that  will  continue  in 
this  country  when  these  poor  tongues  of  Judge  Douglas  and  my- 
self shall  be  silent.  It  is  the  eternal  struggle  between  these  two 
principles  —  right  and  wrong  —  throughout  the  world.  They  are 
the  two  principles  that  have  stood  face  to  face  from  the  beginning 
of  time ;  and  will  ever  continue  to  struggle.  The  one  is  the  com- 
mon right  of  humanity  and  the  other  the  divine  right  of  kings.  It 
is  the  same  principle,  in  whatever  shape  it  develops  itself.  It  is  the 
same  spirit  that  says,  "  You  work  and  toil  and  earn  bread,  and  I  '11 
eat  it."  No  matter  in  what  shape  it  comes,  whether  from  the  mouth 
of  a  king  who  seeks  to  bestride  the  people  of  his  own  nation  and 
live  by  the  fruit  of  their  labor,  or  from  one  race  of  men  as  an  apology 
for  enslaving  another  race,  it  is  the  same  tyrannical  principle. 


WENDELL  PHILLIPS 


Wendell  Phillips  (1811-1884),  the  orator  of  emancipation, 
was  the  son  of  the  first  mayor  of  Boston,  and  sprung  from 
a  line  of  Puritan  ancestry  who  for  six  generations  were 
college  graduates.  There  was 
no  disposition  on  the  part  of 
this  well-born  youth  to  slight 
the  exceptional  advantages 
afforded  him.  With  great 
natural  endowments,  with  the 
best  blood  of  New  England 
in  his  veins,  it  would  seem 
that  no  young  American  had 
brighter  prospects  socially, 
politically,  and  in  a  profes- 
sional way. 

Young  Phillips  prepared  for 
college  in  the  Boston  Latin 
School,  where  so  many  dis- 
tinguished New  Englanders 
have  begun  their  academic 
course.  We  are  told  that 
he  was  first  in  scholarship  as  well  as  a  leader  in  athletics 
during  his  preparatory  course. 

At  the  age  of  fifteen  Phillips  entered  Harvard,  where  his 
scholarship  was  quite  as  good  as  in  the  Latin  School.  "Class 
honors,"  says  one  of  his  fellows,  "went  to  him  without  dispute 
and  without  his  seeking."  His  memory  was  prodigious,  so 
that  in  subsequent  years  the  fund  of  knowledge,  of  telling 

3^3 


314  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

facts  and  anecdotes  which  he  classified  and  stored  away  for 
use,  proved  what  years  of  judicious  culture  will  do  for  native 
force.  Not  satisfied  to  pursue  a  prescribed  course  alone,  he 
entered  upon  an  extensive  course  of  collateral  reading,  which 
included  current  literature  and  the  political  history  of  the  day. 
After  completing  his  course  in  the  college  of  arts,  Phillips 
entered  the  law  school  from  which  he  was  graduated  in  two 
years.  This  was  supplemented  by  a  year  of  travel  in  Europe, 
when  he  entered  upon  the  practice  of  his  profession. 

None  of  the  great  orators  had  more  thorough  and  more 
severe  training  in  the  art  of  public  speaking  than  did  Phillips. 
In  the  Boston  Latin  School  he  came  under  the  instruction  of 
a  schoolmaster  by  the  name  of  Withington,  of  whose  instruc- 
tion in  elocution  Phillips  years  afterwards  spoke  in  the  highest 
terms.  The  boys  were  required  by  this  teacher  to  commit  and 
recite  stirring  passages  of  poetry  and  eloquence.  Young 
Phillips  excelled  all  his  fellows  and  was  the  chief  attraction 
on  declamation  days.  A  fellow  student  at  the  Latin  School 
writes  :  "  What  first  led  me  to  observe  him  and  fix  him  in  my 
memory  was  his  elocution.  I  came  to  look  forward  to  decla- 
mation day  with  interest  on  his  account."  It  was  a  kind  of 
work  so  absorbing  to  him  that  he  would  not  only  devote  much 
time  to  the  practice  of  speaking,  but  would  help  his  young 
friends  in  the  lower  grades  to  select  and  prepare  their  decla- 
mations. Besides,  no  youth  had  better  opportunities  to  listen 
to  the  great  orators  of  the  day.  Wendell  Phillips  not  only 
heard  such  men  as  Webster,  Choate,  Harrison  Gray  Otis, 
John  Quincy  Adarns,  and  many  others,  but,  on  account  of  his 
father's  official  position,  he  frequently  came  into  the  society 
of  these  eloquent  men. 

Harvard  boys  remember  Phillips  as  the  best  speaker  in 
college.  Possessed  of  rare  conversational  power  and  that 
confidence  so  essential  to  the  speaker,  it  seemed  most  natural 


WENDELL   PHILLIPS  *r  315 

for  him  to  embrace  hundreds  within  the  scope  of  his  conver- 
sation, ''It  was  a  great  treat,"  says  a  Harvard  classmate, 
"  to  hear  him  declaim  a  college  exercise.  He  was  always 
studying  remarkable  passages  as  an  exercise  in  composition, 
and  to  secure  the  most  expressive  forms  of  language."  His 
gifts  were  so  marked  that,  on  the  occasion  of  the  death 
of  a  fellow  student,  all  with  one  voice  sought  Phillips  to 
pronounce  the  eulogy.  His  gift  of  speaking,  together  with 
his  engaging  manners,  contributed  greatly  to  his  popularity. 
There  was  no  elective  office  in  the  gift  of  the  students  that 
was  not  open  to  him. 

But  what  was  Phillips  doing  during  his  college  course  to 
perfect  the  art  of  speaking  ?  Throughout  his  residence  at 
Harvard  he  was  a  member  of  a  debating  society  and  took 
active  part  in  its  meetings  ;  but  more,  he  was  a  most  careful 
student  of  elocution  under  Dr.  Jonathan  Barber,  then  instruc- 
tor at  Harvard.  We  quote  his  own  words  from  a  letter  to 
James  E.  Murdoch:  "I  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  Barber's 
pupil  in  a  class  which  fully  appreciated  the  value  of  his 
lessons.  .  .  .  Whatever  I  have  acquired  in  the  art  of  im- 
proving my  voice  I  owe  to  his  suggestions  and  lessons.  .  .  . 
His  teaching  tended  to  make  good  readers  and  speakers,  not 
readers  and  speakers  founded  on  Barber.  It  brought  out 
each  pupil's  peculiar  character  of  utterance  and  expression, 
without  attempting  or  tending  to  cast  him  in  a  mold.  After 
leaving  Barber  a  pupil  had  no  mannerism  to  rid  himself  of 
before  he  got  full  possession  of  his  own  power."  Not  content 
with  his  college  work  in  public  speaking,  he  continued  his  study 
at  intervals  during  his  career  as  an  agitator  with  Professor 
Parkinson,  a  well-known  trainer  of  the  speaking  voice. 

So  much  for  his  education  both  general  and  special.  What 
were  some  of  the  physical  qualifications  of  this  high  product 
of  American  culture  ?    In  personal  appearance  his  presence 


3l6  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

filled  the  eye  before  he  began  to  speak.  His  was  a  form  and 
face  never  to  be  forgotten  when  once  seen.  One  of  his  biog- 
raphers speaks  of  him  as  a  model  in  form  who  "closely  resem- 
bled by  actual  measurement  the  Greek  Apollo.  He  was 
neither  stout  nor  thin,  but  retained  from  youth  to  age  his 
suppleness  and  grace  of  proportions."  In  height  he  was  five 
feet  and  eleven  inches.  His  head  was  large  and  well-propor- 
tioned, his  forehead  high,  his  complexion  fair,  his  eyes  blue- 
gray,  deep-set,  and  penetrative,  and  his  hair  of  a  reddish-golden 
hue.  His  profile  showed  a  nose  of  Roman  mold,  approaching 
the  aquiline.  The  mouth  was  lion-like,  the  lips  well  rounded, 
and  the  chin,  though  not  large,  indicated  great  vitality  and 
force  of  will.  His  face  was  frank  and  kindly  and  wore  a  grave 
and  quiet  expression.  His  erect,  easy,  and  well-poised  body 
indicated  firmness  and  repose.  There  was  the  ease  and  self- 
poise  of  a  prince  and  yet  the  kindliness  of  a  man  of  the 
people.  Though  his  opinions  were  not  always  acceptable, 
grace  of  manner,  beauty  of  person,  and  courtesy  toward  all, 
made  him  a  universal  favorite.  It  was  his  own  expressed 
opinion  that  "  in  the  public  speaker  physical  advantages  are 
half  the  battle." 

Phillips's  voice  was  incomparably  effective.  It  was  not  so 
wide  in  range  nor  so  powerful  as  Webster's  or  Clay's,  but  was 
more  perfectly  modulated  in  its  middle  compass.  His  high 
notes  were  light,  but  silvery  and  penetrating.  It  was  a  baritone 
in  range,  full,  resonant,  mellow,  flutelike,  so  exquisite  as  to 
resemble  the  notes  of  a  well-tuned  violin.  Such  an  instrument 
freighted  with  thought  brought  listeners  into  the  complete 
domain  of  his  influence. 

Few  men  possessed  greater  personal  courage.  If  he 
believed  it  to  be  his  duty  to  speak  on  a  certain  occasion,  no 
matter  how  great  the  peril,  he  did  not  falter.  When  rebuked 
for  encountering  danger  which  to  his  friends  seemed  wholly 


WENDELL  PHILLIPS  317 

unnecessary,  he  replied :  ''I  cannot  think  that  I  have  ever 
thought  what  would  be  the  consequences  to  me  personally." 
In  his  own  city  just  before  the  Rebellion  his  life  was  many 
times  in  peril.  It  was  on  the  occasion  of  his  speeches  in 
Music  Hall,  considered  by  many  as  his  best  orations.  Dis- 
senters from  his  opinions  would  often  become  so  noisy  as  to 
drown  his  utterances.  Indifferent  to  their  threats  and  male- 
dictions composed  under  their  fury,  he  would  advance  to  the 
front  of  the  platform  and  address  the  reporters.  ''  Howl  on  ; 
through  these  fingers  I  speak  to  thirty  millions."  Then  the 
mob  would  cease  that  they  themselves  might  hear.  On  these 
occasions  nothing  aroused  him  so  much  as  opposition.  Even 
his  friends,  when  they  thought  he  lacked  vigor,  would  hiss  to 
arouse  him.  Once  the  crowd  became  so  violent  as  to  threaten 
his  life,  and  a  self-constituted  body  of  young  men  escorted 
him  home  and  guarded  his  house  for  several  days.  Facile  of 
tongue,  he  was  able  usually  to  avoid  trouble,  but  even  though 
mobbed  and  egged  he  went  on  speaking  words  of  fire. 

In  style  his  orations  stand  the  very  best  examples  of 
forensic  oratory.  They  are  clear  in  thought,  keen  and  ready 
in  wit,  and  polished  to  the  highest  perfection  of  oratorical 
composition.  ''The  chief  thing  I  aim  at,"  says  he,  "is  to 
master  my  subject,  and  then  I  try  earnestly  to  get  the  audience 
to  think  as  I  do."  To  this  end  he  varied  his  style  so  as  not 
to  tire.  Lively  description,  appropriate  anecdote,  and  fervent 
appeal  were  intermingled  with  irresistible  logic,  pungent  wit, 
and  outbursts  of  feeling.  His  stinging  epigrams  aroused  the 
public  conscience  into  activity.  Men  were  convinced  against 
their  determination.  His  keen  analysis  and  spicy  satire  set 
men  first  to  admire,  then  to  yield,  then  to  follow.  "  He  slew 
his  antagonist  with  a  sunbeam."  His  diction  was  natural, 
easy,  and  instantly  understood,  with  no  words  that  did  not 
weigh  for  his  point.    This  perfection  of  style  came  from 


3l8  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

infinite  pains,  from  constant  writing  and  thinking.  He 
studied,  toiled,  gathered  facts,  and  every  oration  increased  the 
impression  he  made.  He  reHed  on  the  eloquence  of  concen- 
trated truth  and  moral  purpose. 

No  description  is  adequate  to  set  forth  the  charm  of 
Phillips's  speaking.  His  coming  ushered  in  a  new  method 
of  oratory,  adaptable  to  a  business  age,  the  highest  type  of 
speaking  yet  produced  on  this  continent.  With  his  advent 
the  ponderous  style  began  to  give  place  to  idealized  conver- 
sation. He  was  the  first  of  our  great  orators  to  use  sustained 
conversationalism  as  a  basis  for  speaking.  In  his  advice  to 
young  men  who  trained  with  him,  he  urged  most  strongly 
that  conversation,  dignified  and  elevated  somewhat  above  the 
ordinary  utterance,  is  the  most  desirable  method ;  that  they 
should  acquire  directness,  that  characteristic  of  voice  which 
searches  out  each  auditor — a  sort  of  intimate  colloquial  tone, 
indicative  of  personal  interest  and  sympathy  with  each  listener. 
To  retain  this  directness  he  suggests  that  the  speaker  search 
out  some  pleasing  face  toward  the  back  of  the  audience  and 
talk  to  it.  This  helps  to  carry  the  voice  and  preserves  the  idea 
of  personal  communication  better  than  to  observe  the  audience 
as  a  vague  distant  mass.  He  further  urges  that  the  speaker 
cultivate  distinctness  of  utterance,  stopping  short  of  primness 
and  over-exactness,  which  defeat  their  own  purpose. 

We  have  said  that  Phillips's  voice  was  not  wide  of  compass, 
but  what  it  lacked  in  range  was  made  up  in  distinctness  and 
melody.  He  put  great  intenseness  into  a  small  compass.  His 
method  of  voice '  production  was  so  easy  that  there  was  no 
feeling  on  the  part  of  the  audience  that  he  would  break  down. 
He  would  freely  impress  his  thought  without  any  vocal  display, 
so  that  an  hour  under  his  matchless  tones  seemed  to  the 
listener  but  a  few  moments.  In  rate  his  utterance  was  delib- 
erate without  seeming  slow,  and  was  conducive  to  distinctness 


WENDELL  PHILLIPS  319 

by  giving  full  time  to  his  words.  Though  never  hurried,  he 
was  energetic  and  fully  alive  to  his  theme.  Pause  was  often 
employed  to  make  doubly  effective  his  vivid  thoughts  and 
startling  epigrams.  In  gesture  he  was  reposeful  yet  supreme, 
and  preserved  at  all  times  ''  the  same  grace  and  dignity  of 
personal  bearing."  He  did  not  pace  up  and  down  the  platform 
as  most  orators  do,  but  stood  still  most  of  the  time.  His  atti- 
tudes were  statuesque  without  apparent  effort.  Self-possessed, 
self-contained,  with  magnetic  eyes  and  face  illumined  from 
within,  he  compelled  attention  at  the  first  sight  of  him.  His 
gestures  were  few,  but  so  graceful,  so  appropriate,  so  necessary, 
that  men  never  had  their  attention  drawn  to  them,  and  after- 
wards declared  that  he  used  no  gestures  at  all.  It  was  their 
appropriateness  that  kept  them  from  being  noticed.  He  was 
so  easy  and  natural  that  there  was  nothing  to  call  attention  to 
himself  away  from  the  thought. 

The  surprise  on  first  hearing  him  was  admirably  expressed 
by  the  late  President  Merrick  of  the  Ohio  Wesleyan  Univer- 
sity: "I  went  one  evening  for  the  first  time  to  hear  Wendell 
Phillips.  At  the  appointed  time  a  tall  handsome  gentleman 
came  on  the  platform  and  began  talking  in  a  quiet  conversa- 
tional way.  I  thought  he  was  about  to  introduce  Mr.  Phillips, 
but  as  he  proceeded  I  was  so  charmed  with  him  I  wanted  him 
to  keep  on.  He  did  keep  on  for  an  hour  and  a  half,  and  that 
was  Wendell  Phillips  —  a  gentleman  conversing;  and  that 
was  the  new  type  of  oratory,  to  produce  by  quiet  means  the 
greatest  effect."  This  quiet  intenseness  cannot  be  fully  appre- 
ciated by  those  who  never  heard  him.  As  an  attraction  he 
rivaled  the  theaters.  No  one  could  better  control  an  assem- 
blage. Foes  dared  not  listen.  Mobs  could  not  resist  the 
magic  of  his  voice.  When  sent  to  break  up  his  meetings, 
they  returned  to  say,  "Never  man  spoke  as  this  man."  The 
Richmond   W/itg-  gave  vent  to  Southern  sentiment  when  it 


320  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

called  him  '"  an  infernal  machine  set  to  music."  Beecher  says 
of  his  speech  at  Plymouth  Church  :  "I  was  amazed  at  the 
unagitated  agitator,  so  calm,  so  fearless,  so  incisive,  every 
word  a  bullet.  I  never  heard  a  more  effective  speech.  He 
seemed  inspired,  and  played  with  his  turbulent  audience  as 
Gulliver  with  the  Lilliputians." 

Phillips's  preparation  of  speeches  was  thorough,  even  ardu- 
ous. He  would  first  go  over  the  material  at  hand  and  arrange 
his  notes  on  both  sides  of  the  question.  Then  he  would  write 
his  brief  to  see  that  no  point  was  omitted,  and,  in  order  better 
to  fix  it  in  his  own  memory,  he  would  reduce  it  to  the  short- 
est possible  space.  With  this  in  mind  he  would  face  his 
audience  without  desk  or  notes  and  trust  to  the  inspiration  of 
the  moment  for  fitting  words.  His  opening  sentences  were 
usually  carefully  prepared  and  committed,  and  some  of  his 
closing  sentences,  not  to  exceed  a  hundred  words.  He  care- 
fully prepared  his  most  striking  illustrations,  and  especially 
his  figures  of  speech,  antitheses,  and  epigrams.  "  Get  free  of 
notes  as  soon  as  possible,"  he  once  said  to  a  young  speaker. 
''A  full  man  is  needed,  but  he  must  depend,  when  on  his  legs, 
upon  himself  only."  Close  self-scrutiny  and  study  of  the  audi- 
ence was  with  him  an  incessant  practice.  Yet  he  approached 
speaking  with  reluctance.  When  once  about  to  face  a  turbu- 
lent audience,  some  one  asked  him  whether  he  had  any  fear. 
"  I  tremble  with  fear,"  he  replied,  "  and  if  I  had  my  own  way 
I  would  run  away.    But  it  is  my  duty,  my  duty,  sir." 

The  character  of  Phillips  made  his  oratory  supreme. 
"There  is  no  true  eloquence,"  says  Emerson,  "without  a 
man  behind  it."  America  never  produced  a  more  earnest, 
more  sincere  personality.  Phillips  belongs  to  the  heroic  type. 
His  was  a  knightly  life,  the  incarnation  of  his  cause.  Judged 
by  the  effect  of  his  eloquence  in  molding  national  sentiment 
and  in  directing  affairs  toward  wise  legislation,  no  man  who 


WENDELL  PHILLIPS  321 

has  stood  outside  of  legislative  halls  may  be  compared  with 
him.  American  history  would  be  incomplete  without  his  name 
as  participant  in  our  most  important  events.  To  Phillips's 
eloquence  as  well  as  to  the  arms  of  the  federal  forces  must 
be  attributed  the  freedom  of  the  slave.  He  was  the  unrivaled 
monarch  of  the  abolition  movement.  Sentiment  was  necessary 
before  there  could  be  a  conflict.  Phillips  blazed  the  way  for 
Lincoln,  Grant,  and  Sumner  —  for  emancipation,  for  uncon- 
ditional surrender,  for  enfranchisement. 

His  contemporaries  speak  of  him  in  glowing  terms. 
Whittier  calls  him  "  the  greatest  orator  and  one  of  the  bravest 
of  reformers."  Ambassador  Bryce,  celebrated  for  his  calm 
judgment,  says  he  was  "one  of  the  first  orators  of  the  present 
century,  and  not  more  remarkable  for  the  finish  than  for  the 
transparent  simplicity  of  his  style,  which  attained  its  highest 
effects  by  the  most  direct  and  natural  methods."  Beecher  de- 
clares that  Phillips  "  had  the  dignity  of  Pitt,  the  vigor  of  P^ox, 
the  wit  of  Sheridan,  the  satire  of  Junius,  and  a  grace  and  music 
all  his  own.  His  eloquence  was  penetrating  and  alarming.  It 
did  not  flow  as  a  mighty  gulf  stream.  It  did  not  dash  upon 
this  continent  as  the  ocean  does.  It  was  not  a  mighty  rushing 
river.  His  eloquence  was  a  flight  of  arrows,  sentence  after 
sentence  polished,  and  most  of  them  burning.  And  when 
they  struck  they  slew,  always  elegant,  always  useful." 

It  may  be  doubted  whether  in  the  roll  of  classic  orators  he 
rose  quite  to  the  height  of  Webster.  He  must  be  a  tall  man 
whose  speeches  stand  with  Webster's  —  a  style  of  prose  not 
yet  excelled.  Carlos  Martyn,  in  his  admirable  biography  of 
Phillips,  institutes  this  comparison  with  others  of  our  great 
orators  :  "  Calhoun  was  more  logical  in  his  general  style. 
Clay  was  more  thrilling,  Prentiss  was  more  picturesque.  At 
the  North,  Webster  had  a  more  sustained  splendor  of  diction 
and  greater  majesty.    Everett  surpassed  him  in  elaboration 


322  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

and  indulged  in  more  frequent  bursts  of  beauty.  Choate  was 
more  electric.  Corwin  better  pleased  the  crowd  ^ — was  half 
clown  and  the  other  half  genius.  Sumner  was  more  preten- 
tiously the  scholar,  and  excelled  in  copious  illustration  that 
exhausted  the  subject  to  the  bottom.  Chapin  oftener  soared. 
Beecher  abounded  more  in  the  bravuras  of  oratory  —  was  an 
embodied  thunderstorm.  Lincoln  was  superior  in  the  Eastern 
art  of  story-telling — the  ability  to  pack  the  entire  meaning  of 
the  hour  in  a  pat  anecdote.  Douglas  had  more  pathos.  Cur- 
tiss  might  be  better  depended  upon  as  a  speaker  for  set  occa- 
sions. .  .  .  Nevertheless,  in  the  perfect  molding  of  an  orator 
he  surpassed  each  of  these.  On  the  whole  he  was  a  more 
interesting  and  instructive  speaker  than  any  of  his  contem- 
poraries in  their  palmiest  days.  This  is  superlative  praise ; 
but  the  record  is  true.  Let  it  be  written  while  living  witnesses 
can  attest  it,  and  before  his  eloquence,  like  the  song  of 
Orpheus,  fades  into  a  doubtful  tradition." 

James   Russell   Lowell    gives   this    poetic    description    of 
Phillips  in  the  act  of  speaking : 

There  with  one  hand  behind  his  back, 
Stands  Phillips,  buttoned  in  a  sack, 
An  Attic  orator,  our  Chatham ; 
Old  fogies,  when  he  lightens  at  'em 
Shrivel  like  leaves  ;  to  him  't  is  granted 
Always  to  say  the  word  that 's  wanted, 
So  that  he  seems  but  speaking  clearer 
The  tip-top  thought  of  every  hearer; 
Each  flash  his  brooding  heart  lets  fall 
Fires  what 's  combustible  in  all. 
And  sends  the  applauses  bursting  in 
Like  an  exploded  magazine. 

So  simply  clear,  serenely  deep. 
So  silent,  strong  its  graceful  sweep. 
None  measures  its  unrippling  force 
Who  has  not  striven  to  stem  its  course. 


WENDELL  PHILLIPS  32; 


THE  MURDER  OF  LOVEJOY 

On  November  7,  1837,  Elijah  P.  Lovejoy,  an  abolitionist  editor,  was 
killed  by  a  mob  at  Alton,  Illinois,  while  defending  his  printing  press.  On 
December  8  a  meeting  was  called  at  Faneuil  Hall,  Boston,  to  denounce  the 
mob.  Attorney-General  Austin  opposed  the  resolutions  offered,  declaring 
that  "  Lovejoy  died  as  the  fool  dieth."  Wendell  Phillips,  then  but  twenty- 
six  years  of  age,  remarked  to  a  friend  that  such  a  speech  made  in  that 
sacred  place  should  be  answered  then  and  there.  "Answer  it  yourself," 
said  his  friend.  "  Help  me  to  the  platform  and  I  will,"  was  the  reply. 
Phillips,  thus  urged,  made  his  way  forward,  sprang  to  the  platform,  and 
spoke  as  follows  : 

Mr.  Chairman, -^^e  have  met  for  the  freest  discussion  of  these 
resok}tions,and_the_events -which  gave  rise  to  them.  I  hope  I  shall 
be  permitted  to  express  my  surprise  at  the  sentiments  of  the  last 
speaker,  surprise  not  only  at  such  sentiments  from  such  a  man, 
but  at  the  applause  they  have  received  within  these  walls.  A  com- 
parison has^  been  drawn  between  the  events  of  the  Revolution  and 
the  tragedy  at  Alton.  We  have  heard  it  asserted  here,  in  Faneuil 
Hall,  that  Great  Britain  had  a  right  to  tax  the  colonies,  and  we 
have  heard  the  mob  at  Alton,  the  drunken  murderers  of  Lovejoy, 
compared  to  those  patriot  fathers  who  threw  the  tea  overboard. 
Fellow  citizens,  is  this  Faneuil  Hall  doctrine  ?  The  mob  at  Alton 
were  met  to  wrest  from  a  citizen  his  just  rights,  met  to  resist 
the  laws.  We  have  been  told  that  our  fathers  did  the  same,  and 
the  glorious  mantle  of  Revolutionary  precedent  has  been  thrown 
over  the  mobs  of  our  day.  To  make  out  their  title  to  such  de- 
fense the  gendeman  says  that  the  British  Parliament  had  a  right 
to  tax  these  colonies.  It  is  maiirfest- that  without  this  his  parallel 
falls  to  the  ground,  for  Lovejoy  had  stationed  himself  within  con- 
stitutional bulwarks.  He  was  not  only  defending  the  freedom  of 
the  press,  but  he  was  under  his  own  roof  in  arms,  with  the  sanction 
of  the  civil  authority.  The  men  who  assailed  him  went  against 
and  over  the  laws.  The  mob,  as  the  gentleman  terms  it  —  mob, 
forsooth!  certainly  we  sons  of  the  tea  spillers  are  fib-marvelously 
patient. generotian^  —  the  "orderly  mob"  which  assembled  in  the 


324  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

Old  South  to  destroy  the  tea  were  met  to  resist  not  the  laws  but 
illegal  exactions.  Shame  on  the  American  who  calls  the  tea  tax 
and  stamp  act  laws !  Our  fathers  resisted  not  the  king's  preroga- 
tive but  the  king's  usurpation.  To  find  any  other  account,  you 
must  read  our  Revolutionary  history  upside  down.  -Our  state 
archives  are  loaded  with  arguments  of  John  Adams  to  prove  the 
taxes  laid  by  the  British  Parliament  unconstitutional,  beyond  its 
power.  It  was  not  till  this  was  made  out  that  the  men  of  New 
England  rushed  to  arms. 

The  arguments  of  the  Council  Chamber  and  the  House  of 
Representatives  preceded  and  sanctioned  the  contest.  To  draw 
the  argument  of  our  ancestors  into  a  precedent  for  mobs,  for  a 
right  to  resist  laws  we  ourselves  have  enacted,  is  an  insult  to  their 
memory.  The  difference  between  the  excitements  of  those  days 
and  our  own,  which  the  gentleman  in  kindness  to  the  latter  has 
overlooked,  is  simply  this :  the  men  of  that  day  went  for  the  right 
as  secured  by  the  laws.  (They  were  the  people  rising  to  sustain 
the  laws  and  constitution  of  the  Province^  The  rioters  of  our  day 
go  for  their  own  wills,  right  or  wrong.  Sir,  when  I  heard  the  gen- 
tleman lay  down  principles  which  place  the  murderers  of  Alton 
side  by  side  with  Otis  and  Hancock,  with  Quincy  and  Adams,  I 
thought  those  pictured  lips  would  have  broken  into  voice  to  rebuke 
the  rgci;eant  American,  the  slanderer  of  the  dead.  The  gentleman 
said  that-  he-sho«id-sink-TrttaTTTSignificance  if  he  dared  to  gainsay 
/the  principles  of  these  resolutions;  Sir,  for  the  sentiments  he  has 
uttered  on  soil  consecrated  by  the  prayers  of  Puritans  and  the  blood 
of  patriots  the  earth  should  have  yawned  and  swallowed  him  up. 

The  gentleman  says  Lovejoy  was  presumptuous  and  imprudent, 
he  "died  as  the  fool  dieth."  And  a  reverend  clergyman  of  the 
city  tells  us  that  no  citizen  has  a  right  to  publish  opinions  disagree- 
able to  the  community !  If  any  mob  follows  such  publication,  on " 
him  rests  the  guilt.  He  must  wait  forsooth  till  the  people  come 
up  to  it  and  agree  with  him.  This  libel  on  liberty  goes  on  to  say 
that  the  want  of  right  to  speak  as  we  think  is  an  evil  inseparable 
from  republican  institutions.    If  this  be  so,  what  are  they  worth  ? 


WENDELL  PHILLIPS  325 

Welcome  the  despotism  of  the  Sultan  where  one  knows  what  he 
may  publish  and  what  he  may  not,  rather  than  the  tyranny  of  this 
many-headed  monster  the  mob,  where  we  know  not  what  we  may 
do  or  say  till  some  fellow  citizen  has  tried  it  and  paid  for  the  lesson 
with  his  life.  This  clerical  absurdity  chooses  as  a  check  for  the 
abuses  of  the  press,  not  the  law  but  the  dread  of  the  mob.  By  so 
doing  it  deprives  not  only  the  individual  and  the  minority  of  their 
rights,  but  the  majority  also,  since  the  expression  of  their  opinion 
may  sometimes  provoke  disturbance  from  the  minority.  A  few 
men  may  make  a  mob  as  well  as  many.  I'he  majority  then  have 
no  right  as  Christian  men  to  utter  their  sentiments  if  by  any  possi- 
bility it  may  lead  to  a  mob.  Shades  of  Hugh  Peters  and  John 
Cotton,  save  us  from  such  pulpits ! 

Imprudent  to  defend  the  liberty  of  the  press  !  Why  ?  Because 
the  defense  was  unsuccessful }  Does  success  gild  crime  into  patri- 
otism, and  the  want  of  it  change  heroic  self-devotion  into  impru- 
dence ?  Was  Hampden  imprudent  when  he  drew  the  sword  and 
threw  away  the  scabbard  ?  Yet  he,  judged  by  that  single  hour, 
was  unsuccessful  ?  After  a  short  exile  the  race  he  hated  sat  again 
upon  the  throne. 

Imagine  yourself  present  when  the  first  news  of  Bunker  Hill 
battle  reached  a  New  England  town.  The  tale  would  have  run 
thus:  "The  patriots  are  routed,  the  redcoats  victorious,  Warren 
lies  dead  upon  the  field."  With  what  scorn  would  that  Tory  have 
been  received  who  should  have  charged  Warren  with  imprudence, 
who  should  have  said  that,  bred  as  a  physician,  he  was  "  out  of 
place"  in  the  battle,  and  "died  as  the  fool  dieth  "  I  How  would 
the  intimation  have  been  received  that  Warren  and  his  associates 
should  have  waited  a  better  time  ? 

Presumptuous  to  assert  the  freedom  of  the  press  on  American 
ground !  Is  the  assertion  of  such  freedom  before  the  age  ?  So 
much  before  the  age  as  to  leave  one  no  right  to  make  it  because 
it  displeases  the  community  ?  Who  invents  this  libel  on  his  country ,? 
It  is  this  very  thing  that  entitles  Lovejoy  to  greater  praise.  The 
disputed  right  which  provoked  the  revolution  —  taxation  without 


326  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

representation  —  is  far  beneath  that  for  which  he  died.  As  much 
as  thought  is  better  than  money,  so  much  is  the  cause  in  which 
Lovejoy  died  nobler  than  a  mere  question  of  taxes.  James  Otis 
thundered  in  this  hall  when  the  king  did  but  touch  his  pocket. 
Imagine  if  you  can  his  indignant  eloquence  had  England  offered 
to  put  a  gag  upon  his  lips. 

JOHN  BROWN 

This  is  taken  from  the  speech  deUvered  at  Plymouth  Church,  Brooklyn, 
New  York,  in  November,  1859. 

I  know,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  that,  educated  as  you  have  been 
by  the  experience  of  the  last  ten  years,  you  would  think  me  the 
silliest  as  well  as  the  most  cowardly  man  in  the  world  if  I  should 
come,  with  my  twenty  years  behind  me,  and  talk  about  anything 
else  to-night  except  that  great  example  which  one  man  has  set  us 
on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac.  You  expected,  of  course,  that  I  should 
tell  you  my  opinion  of  it. 

I  value  this  element  that  Brown  has  introduced  into  American 
politics.  The  South  is  a  great  power.  There  are  no  cowards  in 
Virginia.  It  was  not  cowardice.  Now  I  try  to  speak  very  plainly, 
but  you  will  misunderstand  me.  There  is  no  cowardice  in  Virginia. 
The  people  of  the  South  are  not  cowards.  The  lunatics  in  the 
Gospel  were  not  cowards  when  they  said,  "Art  thou  come  to 
torment  us  before  the  time  ?  "  They  were  brave  enough,  but  they 
saw  afar  off.  They  saw  the  tremendous  power  that  was  entering 
into  that  charmed  circle  ;  they  knew  its  inevitable  victory.  Virginians 
did  not  tremble  at  an  old  gray-headed  man  at  Harpers  Ferry ; 
they  trembled  at  a  John  Brown  in  every  man's  own  conscience. 
He  had  been  there  many  years,  and,  like  that  terrific  scene  which 
Beckford  has  drawn  for  us  in  his  Hall  of  Eblis,  where  all  ran  round, 
each  man  with  an  incurable  wound  in  his  bosom,  and  agreed  not 
to  speak  of  it,  so  the  South  has  been  running  up  and  down  its 
political  and  social  life,  and  every  man  keeps  his  right  hand  pressed 
on  the  secret  and  incurable  sore,  with  an  understood  agreement,  in 


WENDELL   PHILLIPS  327 

Church  and  State,  that  it  never  shall  be  mentioned  for  fear  the  great 
ghastly  fabric  shall  come  to  pieces  at  the  talismanic  word.  Brown 
uttered  it,  and  the  whole  machinery  trembled  to  its  very  base. 

I  value  that  moment.  Did  you  ever  see  a  blacksmith  shoe  a 
restless  horse }  If  you  have,  you  have  seen  him  take  a  small  cord 
and  tie  the  horse's  upper  lip.  If  you  ask  him  what  he  does  it  for, 
he  will  tell  you  he  does  it  to  give  the  beast  something  to  think  of. 
Now  the  South  has  extensive  schemes.  She  grasps  with  one  hand 
at  Mexico,  and  with  the  other  dictates  terms  to  the  Church.  She 
imposes  conditions  on  the  United  States.  She  buys  up  Webster 
with  a  litde,  and  Everett  with  nothing.  John  Brown  has  given  her 
something  else  to  think  of.    He  has  turned  her  attention  inwardly. 

Se  has  taught  her  that  there  has  been  created  a  new  element  in 
is  Northern  mind ;  that  it  is  not  merely  the  thinker,  that  it  is  not 
merely  the  editor,  that  it  is  not  merely  the  moral  reformer,  but 
the  idea  has  pervaded  all  classes  of  society.  Call  them  madmen,  if 
you  will.  It  is  hard  to  tell  who  's  mad.  The  world  says  one  man  is 
ma,d.  John  Brown  said  the  same  of  the  governor.  You  remember 
the  madman  in  Edinburgh ;  a  friend  asked  him  what  he  was  there 
for.  "  Well,"  said  he,  "  they  said  at  home  that  I  was  mad,  and  I 
said  I  was  not,  but  they  had  the  majority."  Just  so  it  is  in  regard 
to  John  Brown.  The  nation  says  he  is  mad.  I  appeal  from  Philip 
drunk  to  Philip  sober ;  I  appeal  from  the  American  people  drunk 
with  cotton  and  the  utterances  of  the  New  York  Observer  to  the 
American  people  fifty  years  hence,  when  the  light  of  civilization 
has  had  more  time  to  penetrate;  when  self-interest  has  been 
rebuked  by  the  world  rising  and  giving  its  verdict  on  these  great 
questions ;  when  it  is  not  a  small  band  of  abolitionists,  but  the 
civilization  of  the  nineteenth  century,  that  undertakes  to  enter  the 
arena  and  discuss  its  last  great  reform.  When  that  day  comes, 
what  shall  be  thought  of  these  first  martyrs  who  teach  us  how  to 
live  and  how  to  die  t 

Suppose  John  Brown  had  not  stayed  at  Harpers  P^rry.  Sup- 
pose on  that  momentous  Monday  night,  when  the  excited  imagi- 
nations of  two  thousand  Charleston  people  had  enlarged  him  and 


328  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

his  little  band  into  four  hundred  white  men  and  two  hundred  blacks, 
he  had  vanished,  and  when  the  gallant  troops  arrived  there,  two 
thousand  strong,  they  had  found  nobody !  The  mountains  would 
have  been  peopled  with  enemies ;  the  Alleghenies  would  have 
heaved  with  insurrection.  You  never  would  have  convinced  Vir- 
ginia that  all  Pennsylvania  was  not  armed  and  on  the  hills, 
Virginia  has  not  slept  soundly  since  Nat  Turner  had  an  insurrection 
in  1 83 1,  and  she  bids  fair  never  to  have  a  nap  now.  For  this  is 
not  an  insurrection ;  this  is  the  penetration  of  a  different  element. 
Mark  you,  it  is  not  the  oppressed  race  rising.  Recollect  history. 
There  never  was  a  race  held  in  chains  that  absolutely  vindicated  its 
own  liberty,  but  one.  There  never  was  a  serf  nor  a  slave  whose 
own  sword  cut  off  his  own  chain,  but  one.  Blue-eyed,  light-haired 
Anglo-Saxons,  it  was  not  our  race.  We  were  serfs  for  three  cen- 
turies, and  we  waited  till  commerce  and  Christianity  and  a  different 
law  had  melted  our  fetters.  We  were  crowded  down  into  a  villen- 
age  which  crushed  out  our  manhood  so  thoroughly  that  we  had  n't 
vigor  enough  to  redeem  ourselves.  Neither  did  France,  neither  did 
Spain,  neither  did  the  northern  nor  the  southern  races  of  Europe 
have  that  bright  spot  on  their  escutcheon  —  that  they  put  an  end 
to  their  slavery.  Blue-eyed,  haughty,  contemptuous  Anglo-Saxons, 
it  was  the  black  —  the  only  race  in  the  record  of  history  that  ever, 
after  a  century  of  oppression,  retained  the  vigor  to  write  the  charter 
of  its  emancipation  with  its  own  hand  in  the  blood  of  the  dominant 
race.  Despised,  calumniated,  slandered  San  Domingo  is  the  only 
instance  in  history  where  a  race,  with  indestructible  love  of  justice, 
serving  a  hundred  years  of  oppression,  rose  up  under  their  own 
leader  and  with  their  own  hands  abolished  slavery  on  their  own 
soil.  Wait,  garrulous,  vainglorious,  boasting  Saxon,  till  we  have 
done  as  much  before  we  talk  of  the  cowardice  of  the  black  race. 
Here  is  a  man  arraigned  before  a  jury,  or  about  to  be.  The 
state  of  Virginia,  as  she  calls  herself,  is  about  to  try  him.  The 
first  step  in  that  trial  is  a  jury ;  the  second  is  a  judge ;  and  at 
the  head  stands  the  chief  executive  of  the  state,  who  is  to  put 
his  hand  to  the  death  warrant  before  it  can  be  executed ;  and  yet 


WENDELL   PHILLIPS  329 

that  very  executive,  who  is  bound  by  the  very  responsibility  that 
rests  on  him  to  keep  his  mind  impartial  as  to  the  guilt  of  the  per- 
son arraigned,  hastens  down  to  Richmond,  hurries  to  the  platform, 
and  proclaims  to  the  assembled  commonwealth  of  Virginia :  "  The 
man  is  a  murderer  and  ought  to  be  hanged."  Almost  every  lip  in 
the  state  might  have  said  it,  except  that  single  lip  of  its  governor ; 
and  the  moment  he  had  uttered  these  words,  in  the  theory  of  the 
English  law,  it  was  not  possible  to  impanel  an  impartial  jury  in  the 
commonwealth  of  Virginia;  it  was  not  possible  to  get  the  materials 
and  the  machinery  to  try  him  according  to  even  the  ugliest  pattern 
of  English  jurisprudence.  And  yet  the  New  York  press  daily  prints 
the  accounts  of  the  trial.  Trial !  The  Inquisition  used  to  break 
every  other  bone  in  a  man's  body,  and  then  lay  him  on  a  pallet, 
giving  him  neither  counsel  nor  opportunity  to  consult  one,  and  then 
wring  from  his  tortured  mouth  something  like  a  confession,  and 
call  it  a  trial.  But  it  was  heaven-robed  innocence  compared  with 
the  trial,  or  what  the  New  York  press  calls  so,  that  has  been  going 
on  in  starded,  frightened  Charleston.  I  speak  what  I  know,  and  I 
speak  what  is  but  the  breath  and  whisper  of  the  summer  breezes 
compared  with  the  tornado  of  rebuke  that  will  come  back  from  the 
press  of  Great  Britain,  when  they  hear  that  we  affect  to  call  that 
a  jury  trial,  and  blacken  the  names  of  judge  and  jury  by  baptizing 
these  pirate  orgies  with  such  honorable  appellations. 

Do  you  suppose  that  these  things  mean  nothing?  /What  the 
tender  and  poetic  youth  dreams  to-day,  and  conjures  up  with 
inarticulate  speech,  is  to-morrow  the  vociferated  result  of  public 
opinion,  and  the  day  after  is  the  charter  of  nations.  The  senti- 
ments we  raise  to  intellect,  and  from  intellect  to  character,  the 
American  people  have  begun  to  feel.  The  mute  eloquence  of  the 
fugitive  slave  has  gone  up  and  down  the  highways  and  byways  of 
the  country.  This  blow,  like  the  first  blow  at  Lexington,  heard 
around  the  world  —  this  blow  at  Harpers  Ferry  reveals  men. 
Watch  those  about  you,  and  you  will  see  more  of  the  temper  and 
unheeded  purpose  and  real  moral  posiJ:ion  of  men  than  you  would 
imagine.    This  is  the  way  nations  are  to  be  judged.    Be  not  in  a 


330  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

hurry ;  it  will  come  soon  enough  from  this  sentiment.  We  stereo- 
type feeling  into  intellect,  and  then  into  statutes,  and  finally  into 
national  character.  We  have  got  the  first  stage  of  growth.  Na- 
ture's live  growths  crowd  out  and  rive  dead  matter.  Ideas  strangle 
statutes.  Pulse  beats  wear  down  granite,  whether  piled  in  jails  or 
capitols.  The  people's  hearts  are  the  only  title  deeds,  after  all. 
John  Brown's  movement  against  slavery  is  exactly  the  same.  Wait 
awhile,  and  you  '11  all  agree  with  me.  What  is  fanaticism  to-day  is 
the  fashionable  creed  to-morrow,  and  trite  as  the  multiplication  table 
a  week  after. 

John  Brown  has  stirred  omnipotent  pulses.    Hope  I  there  is  hope 
everywhere.    It  is  only  the  universal  history : 

Right  forever  on  the  scaffold,  Wrong  forever  on  the  throne ; 
But  that  scaffold  sways  the  future,  and  behind  the  dim  unknown 
Standeth  God  within  the  shadow,  keeping  watch  above  his  own. 


TOUSSAINT  L'OUVERTURE 

^''  This  selection  is  taken  from  a  speech  which  was  first  delivered  in  1861, 
and  afterwards  repeated  time  and  again  in  lyceum  courses  throughout  the 
North.  ;Tt  is  one  of  Phillips's  best-known  utterances  and  was  enchanting  to 
his  audiences. 

If  I  were  to  tell  you  the  story  of  Napoleon,  I  should  take  it  from 
the  lips  of  Frenchmen,  who  find  no  language  rich  enough  to  paint 
the  great  captain  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Were  I  to  tell  you  the 
story  of  Washington,  I  should  take  it  from  your  hearts — you,  who 
think  no  marble  white  enough  on  which  to  carve  the  name  of  the 
Father  of  his  Country.  But  I  am  to  tell  you  the  story  of  a  negro, 
Toussaint  L'Ouvertiire,  who  has  left  hardly  one  written  line.  I  am 
to  glean  it  from  the  reluctant  testimony  of  his  enemies,  men  who 
despised  him  because  he  was  a  negro  and  a  slave,  hated  him 
because  he  had  beaten  them  in  battle. 

Cromwell  manufactured  his  own  army.  Napoleon,  at  the  age 
of  twenty-seven,  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  best  troops  Europe 
ever  saw.    Cromwell   never  saw  an  army  till  he  was   forty ;  this 


WENDELL  PHILLIPS  33 1 

man  never  saw  a  soldier  till  he  was  fifty.  Cromwell  manufactured 
his  army  —  out  of  what  ?  Englishmen,  the  best  blood  in  Europe  ; 
out  of  the  middle  class  of  Englishmen,  the  best  blood  of  the 
island.  And  with  it  he  conquered  what  ?  Englishmen — their  equals. 
This  man  manufactured  his  army  out  of  what .''  Out  of  what  you 
call  the  despicable  race  of  negroes,  debased,  demoralized  by  two 
hundred  years  of  slavery,  one  hundred  thousand  of  them  imported 
into  the  island  within  four  years,  unable  to  speak  a  dialect  intelligi- 
ble even  to  each  other.  Yet  out  of  this  mixed  and,  as  you  say, 
despicable  mass  he  forged  a  thunderbolt  and  hurled  it  at  what  ? 
At  the  proudest  blood  in  Europe,  the  Spaniard,  and  sent  him  home 
conquered ;  at  the  most  warlike  blood  in  Europe,  the  French,  and 
put  them  under  his  feet ;  at  the  pluckiest  blood  in  Europe,  the 
English,  and  they  skulked  home  to  Jamaica.  Now  if  Cromwell  was 
a  general,  at  least  this  man  was  a  soldier. , 

Now,  blue-eyed  Saxon,  proud  of  your  race,  go  back  with  me  to 
the  commencement  of  the  century,  and  select  what  statesman  you 
please.  Let  him  be  either  American  or  European ;  let  him  have  a 
brain  the  result  of  six  generations  of  culture ;  let  him  have  the 
ripest  training  of  university  routine ;  let  him  add  to  it  the  better 
education  of  practical  life ;  crown  his  temples  with  the  silver  locks 
of  seventy  years,  and  show  me  the  man  of  Saxon  lineage  for  whom 
his  most  sanguine  admirer  will  wreathe  a  laurel  rich  as  embittered 
foes  have  placed  on  the  brow  of  this  negro, — rare  military  skill, 
profound  knowledge  of  human  nature,  content  to  blot  out  all  party 
distinctions,  and  trust  a  state  to  the  blood  of  its  sons,  —  anticipat- 
ing Sir  Robert  Peel  fifty  years,  and  taking  his  station  by  the  side 
of  Roger  Williams,  before  any  Englishman  or  American  had  won 
the  right;  and  yet  this  is  the  record  which  the  history  of  rival 
states  makes  up  for  this  inspired  black  of  San  Domingo. 

Some  doubt  the  courage  of  the  negro.  Go  to  Haiti,  and  stand 
on  those  fifty  thousand  graves  of  the  best  soldiers  France  ever  had, 
and  ask  them  what  they  think  of  the  negro's  sword.  I  would  call 
him  Napoleon,  but  Napoleon  made  his  way  to  empire  over  broken 
oaths  and  through  a  sea  of  blood.   This  man  never  broke  his  word. 


332  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

I  would  call  him  Cromwell,  but  CromWell  was  only  a  soldier,  and 
the  state  he  founded  went  down  with  him  into  his  grave.  I  would 
call  him  Washington,  but  the  great  Virginian  held  slaves.  This 
man  risked  his  empire  rather  than  permit  the  slave  trade  in  the 
humblest  village  of  his  dominions. 

You  think  me  a  fanatic,  for  you  read  history  not  with  your  eyes 
but  with  your  prejudices.  But  fifty  years  hence,  when  truth  gets 
a  hearing,  the  muse  of  history  will  write  Phocion  for  the  Greek, 
Brutus  for  the  Roman,  Hampden  for  England,  Fayette  for  France, 
choose  Washington  as  the  bright  consummate  flower  of  our  earlier 
civilization,  then,  dipping  her  pen  in  the  sunlight,  will  write  in  the 
clear  blue,  above  them  all,  the  name  of  the  soldier,  the  statesman, 
the  martyr,  Toussaint  L'Ouverture. 


HENRY  WARD   BEECHER 


Henry  Ward  Beecher  (i8 13-1887)  was  the  product  of  the 
best  culture  of  New  England.  His  father,  Lyman  Beecher, 
was  the  most  celebrated  preacher  of  his  generation.  Every 
advantage  that  the  father  could 
offer  to  fit  his  son  for  high  po- 
sition was  opened  to  him.  He 
was  placed  in  the  Boston  Latin 
School  at  twelve ;  two  years 
were  spent  at  Mt.  Pleasant 
Academy,  Amherst,  Massa- 
chusetts; four  years  at  Am- 
herst College,  and  three  years 
at  Lane  Theological  Seminary, 
Cincinnati,  Ohio,  of  which 
his  father  had  been  chosen 
president. 

"  Though  dull  at  first  to  or- 
dinary book  knowledge,"  says 
one  of  his  biographers,  ''  the 
clouds  and  the  elms,  the  birds 
and  the  trout  streams  found 


Henry  a  good  scholar."  His  course  at  Lane  Seminary  was  the 
most  important  of  his  education.  It  was  a  time  of  hard  study, 
intellectual  broadening,  and  great  spiritual  activity.  He  was 
a  close  student  of  Milton  and  Shakespeare,  but  he  declares 
that  he  owes  "  more  to  the  book  of  Acts  and  the  writings 
of  the  Apostle  Paul  than  to  all  other  books  put  together." 
But  his  general  education  had  only  begun  with  these  things. 

333 


334  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

He  became  a  student  of  affairs,  a  deep  thinker,  an  editor  who 
had  opportunity  to  express  himself  on  leading  public  ques- 
tions, social,  educational,  and  political,  as  well  as  on  matters 
of  theology,  and  to  mold  public  opinion  in  America. 

Few  men  who  have  attained  eminence  as  orators  ever  sub- 
mitted to  so  much  hard  drill  as  did  Henry  Ward  Beecher, 
and  few  appreciated  it  more,  or  spoke  about  it  with  so  much 
gratitude.  While  a  small  boy  he  had  great  difficulty  in  ar- 
ticulation on  account  of  enlarged  tonsils  and  a  small  throat. 
His  aunt  declares  that  when  he  came  to  her  home  on  errands 
she  would  have  to  ask  him  to  repeat  the  message  two  or 
three  times  before  it  would  dawn  on  her  what  he  wanted.  He 
says  of  his  own  training  in  elocution :  "It  was  my  good  for- 
tune to  fall  into  the  hands  of  Professor  Lovell  of  New  Haven, 
and  for  a  period  of  three  years  I  was  drilled  incessantly  in 
gesture  and  voice  culture.  His  manner,  however,  he  ve^y 
properly  did  not  communicate  to  me.  He  simply  gave  his 
pupils  the  knowledge  of  what  they  had  in  themselves.  We 
practiced  a  great  deal  on  what  was  called  '  Dr.  Barber's  sys- 
tem,' which  was  then  in  vogue,  and  particularly  in  developing 
the  voice  in  its  lower  register,  and  also  upon  the  explosive 
tones.  There  was  a  large  grove  lying  between  the  seminary 
and  my  father's  house,  and  it  was  the  habit  of  brother  Charles 
and  myself,  and  one  or  two  others,  to  make  the  night  and 
even  the  day  hideous  with  our  voices,  as  we  passed  backward 
and  forward  through  the  wood,  exploding  all  the  vowels,  from 
the  bottom  to  the.  top  of  our  voices.  I  found  it  to  be  a  very 
manifest  benefit,  and  one  that  has  remained  with  me  all  my 
life  long.  The  drill  that  I  underwent  produced  not  a  rhetori- 
cal manner,  but  a  flexible  instrument  that  accommodated  it- 
self readily  to  every  kind  of  thought  and  every  shade  of  feeling, 
and  obeyed  the  inward  will  in  the  outward  realization  of  the 
results  of  rules  and  regulations." 


HENRY  WARD  BEECH ER  335 

Beecher  not  only  drilled  with  Professor  Lovell  during  his 
preparatory  course,  but  kept  up  his  training  during  his  four 
years  at  Amherst  College  and  his  three  years  at  the  Theo- 
logical Seminary.  One  of  his  classmates  declares  :  ''In  logic 
and  class  debates  no  one  could  approach  him.  I  listened  to 
his  flow  of  eloquence  in  those  days  with  wonder  and  admi- 
ration." By  this  time  he  had  acquired  right  habits,  had  cul- 
tivated distinctness,  had  strengthened  and  enlarged  his  ^ocal 
organs,  had  made  his  voice  flexible  and  responsive,  had  ac- 
quired the  charm  of  conversational  directness  and  the  power 
to  so  vary  his  voice  as,  he  himself  says,  "  to  bewitch  his  audi- 
ences out  of  their  weariness  by  the  charms  of  a  voice  not 
artificial  but  made  by  assiduous  training  to  be  his  second 
nature.  What  a  speaker  most  needs  is  to  strengthen  his 
ordinary  conversational  voice,  without  giving  it  a  hard,  firm 
quality ;  that  is,  without  destroying  its  flexibility  and  power 
of  adaptation  to  every  mood."  When  one  arrives  at  this  stage 
of  training,  his  speaking  becomes  a  growth,  a  simultaneous 
vocal  and  mental  development. 

Beecher's  early  experience  in  the  ministry,  first  at  Law- 
renceburg,  Indiana,  and  then  at  Indianapolis,  was  a  time  of 
rapid  growth  in  power  as  a  public  speaker.  He  was  tireless 
in  church  work,  in  preparing  hi^sermons,  in  writing  edito- 
rials, in  active  work  as  a  citizen  in  the  promotion  of  good 
government.  His  power  of  concentration  of  thought  is  well 
illustrated  in  the  fact  that  during  his  pastorate  at  Indianapolis 
he  preached  a  series  of  forty  sermons  on  one  particular  line 
of  thought,  and  then  concluded  to  put  the  substance  of  them 
all  into  one  powerful  address.  When  he  preached  that  ser- 
mon the  effect  was  so  great  that  ever  afterward  he  was  recog- 
nized as  a  great  orator.  He  kept  up  through  life  this  habit  of 
crowding  a  great  deal  into  his  sermons  —  an  example  well 
worth  the  emulation  of  all  aspiring  young  preachers.    So  great 


336  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

was  Beecher's  influence,  so  increased  was  his  following  of 
young  men,  that  his  church  at  Indianapolis  had  to  be  enlarged 
to  accommodate  his  congregation;  and  when  in  1847  he  was 
called  to  Plymouth  Church,  Brooklyn,  he  had  come  to  the 
stature  of  a  well-rounded  public  man,  highly  reputed  for  his 
eloquence. 

Let  no  one  think  that  Beecher's  skill  in  managing  men 
came  to  him  without  severe  discipline  and  many  heartburns. 
Like  many  others  he  lacked  confidence  in  his  early  ministry. 
"  For  the  first  three  years  of  my  ministry,"  he  says,  "I  did 
^not  make  a  single  sinner  wink."  But  he  was  learning.  He 
studied  human  nature  as  few  orators  ever  did.  His  pastoral 
work  took  him  into  every  family  in  his  church.  He  says  that 
during  his  first  pastorate  at  Lawrenceburg,  Indiana,  he  did 
everything  "  but  come  to  hear  himself  preach."  He  swept 
the  church,  made  the  fires,  rang  the  bell,  trimmed  the  lamps. 
He  carried  sunshine  and  good  humor  with  him  wherever  he 
went,  and  it  was  reflected  in  his  own  life  as  well  as  in  the 
lives  of  those  with  whom  he  came  in  contact.  When  asked 
why  he  used  wit  and  humor  in  his  preaching,  he  said,  "  Every 
bell  in  my  belfry  shall  ring  to  help  influence  men."  His 
twelve  years  of  Western  experience  gave  him  wide  sympathy 
with  and  knowledge  of  the  average  man  —  what  he  was  pleased 
to  call  the  "plain  folks."  He  felt  that  it  was  well  to  keep 
close  to  these  people  and  be  seasoned  with  their  sympathy. 
It  was  his  custom  to  talk  with  railroad  employees  on  his  jour- 
neys, ride  with  bus  drivers,  or  sit  down  with  workmen  any- 
where he  chanced  to  find  them,  because  of  his  love  of  humanity 
and  for  the  sake  of  learning  how  to  reach  men.  This  study 
of  human  nature  gave  him  supreme  power  when  he  faced 
men  in  stormy  assemblies. 

Beecher's  physical  qualifications  conduced  greatly  to  his 
success.    He  was  blessed  with  a  magnificent  physique,  due  no 


HENRY  WARD  BEECHER  337 

doubt  to  life  out  of  doors  on  the  Litchfield  hills  in  his  youth. 
He  was  about  five  feet  ten  inches  in  height,  erect,  with  broad 
shoulders,  a  finely  knit,  sturdy  frame,  and  a  large  chest.  His 
hair  was  light  brown  and  was  usually  worn  long.  His  com- 
plexion was  florid,  his  eyes  blue,  which  Dr.  Parker  declared 
were  as  ''  full  as  Shakespeare's,  as  radiant  as  Gladstone's,  as 
expressive  as  Garrick's  " ;  he  had  a  large  mouth  and  throat 
and  a  full  musical  voice.  His  was  a  rollicking  nature,  a  sunny, 
happy  disposition,  yet  with  his  playfulness  there  was  an  all- 
absorbing  earnestness.  Full  of  vitality,  he  always  drove  at 
full  speed  as  a  means  of  working  off  his  surplus  energy. 
His  mental  vigor  and  alertness  were  due  to  his  great  physical 
vitality,  and  it  was  this  combination  that  made  Plymouth, 
next  to  the  Old  South  Church,  Boston,  the  historic  church 
of  America. 

Beecher  was  a  master  of  oratorical  style.  Every  element 
that  goes  to  contribute  to  success  in  oratory  was  possessed 
by  him  —  simplicity,  power  of  statement,  imagination,  pathos, 
wrath,  quiet  wit  and  subtle  humor,  sarcasm,  appeal,  a  poetic 
nature,  and  a  love  of  the  beautiful.  With  all  these  he  had  a 
supreme  gift  of  language,  emotional  intensity,  and  physical 
earnestness.  His  eloquence  was  sudden  and  fiery,  rather  than 
premeditated  and  deliberate.  His  verbal  memory  was  so  poor 
that  he  rarely  attempted  quotation.  He  found  it  almost  im- 
possible to  quote  Scripture  correctly.  The  drudgery  of  com- 
mitting in  his  later  years  "stayed  his  mental  processes,"  as 
he  put  it.  This  is  why,  in  his  published  speeches,  there  are 
almost  no  quotations.  He  had  no  difficulty  in  remember- 
ing and  treasuring  up  ideas,  but  it  was  to  him  a  waste  of 
energy  to  charge  his  mind  with  a  set  form  of  words  to  express 
those  ideas,  for  he  was  never  at  a  loss  for  expressive  diction, 
and  was  very  facile  and  effective  in  the  use  of  illustrations. 
His  good  nature  and  bubbling  humor  made  it  possible  for 


338  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

him  to  be  severe  without  giving  offense,  for  he  says,  "  men 
will  let  you  abuse  them  if  you  will  only  make  them  laugh." 

His  method  of  presenting  his  sermons  was  a  model  for 
students.  At  first  he  wrote  his  sermons  and  presented  them 
from  manuscript.  This  enabled  him  to  think  closely  and  con- 
cisely and  to  develop  logical  method  and  accurate  diction. 
As  he  gained  in  experience  and  fluency  he  gradually  relin- 
quished the  complete  writing  of  his  sermons  and  resorted  to 
briefs,  and  for  the  last  twenty  years  of  his  career  only  bare 
outlines  of  his  sermons  were  taken  into  the  pulpit.  And  al- 
though his  sermons  were  as  carefully  planned  as  when  he 
wrote  in  full,  he  was  left  free  to  extemporize  as  his  feelings 
and  imagination  prompted,  and  was  able  much  better  to  adapt 
himself  to  the  occasion  and  the  mood  of  his  audience. 

We  have  already  referred  to  Plymouth  as  a  historic  church. 
Beecher's  patriotism  made  it  so.  His  pulpit  was  dedicated  to 
freedom.  In  ante-bellum  times,  which  so  tried  men's  souls, 
it  was  the  only  place  in  New  York  where  it  was  safe  for 
Wendell  Phillips  and  other  abolitionists  to  speak.  When  on 
one  occasion  Beecher  came  into  the  pulpit,  leading  a  handsome 
octoroon  girl  who  was  about  to  be  carried  back  into  slavery, 
and  stated  that  she  might  be  free  if  two  thousand  dollars  were 
offered  for  her  purchase,  silver  and  gold,  bracelets  and  rings, 
checks  and  bank  notes  rained  down  upon  the  platform,  until 
more  than  enough  was  contributed  for  her  freedom.  And 
when  the  Civil  War  finally  broke  out  Plymouth  Church  under 
the  leadership  of -Beecher  raised  and  equipped  a  regiment  for 
the  Union.  Such  was  the  influence  upon  the  nation  of  his 
utterances  and  his  life  that  he  has  been  placed  by  some 
among  the  first  statesmen  of  that  time,  for  he  was  frequently 
called  in  counsel  by  President  Lincoln. 

Beecher's  greatest  service  to  his  country  was  during  the 
Civil  War,  in  the  series  of  speeches  he  made  in  England  in 


HENRY  WARD   BEECHER  339 

behalf  of  the  Union.  In  five  speeches  —  at  Manchester,  Glas- 
gow, Edinburgh,  Liverpool,  and  London  —  he  changed  the 
attitude  of  the  English  nation  from  one  of  open  hostility  to  the 
American  Union,  to  one  of  neutrality  and  even  of  favor.  It  is 
doubtful  if  there  ever  was  a  greater  triumph  in  the  history  of 
eloquence.  He  braved  the  Briton  in  one  of  his  most  angry 
moods.  When  Beecher  went  to  England  there  were  few  men 
there  who  had  the  courage  to  defend  the  North.  He  under- 
took to  change  the  current  of  feeling  and  did  it,  until  the  tide 
flowed  the  other  way.  His  five  speeches  were  really  one 
speech  in  five  parts,  all  relating  to  different  phases  of  the 
subject  and  adapted  to  the  character  of  his  audiences.  He 
literally  fought  his  way  like  a  conquering  hero  from  Manches- 
ter to  London.  It  was  a  continual  battle  with  his  audience, 
who  met  him  with  hootings  and  catcalls.  They  came  with 
missiles  to-hurl  at  him,  but  dropped  them  to  applaud  his  sen- 
timents. There  was  not  once  that  his  parries  and  thrusts 
were  not  effective  ;  and  such  thrusts  and  counterth rusts ! 
There  is  no  sharper  combat  in  the  field  of  debate.  Dr.  Taylor 
of  Broadway  Tabernacle  says,  "  I  tell  you  there  has  not  been 
such  eloquence  in  the  world  since  Demosthenes."  It  was  a 
sublime  achievement  for  Beecher  to  go  into  England,  just 
after  the  Trent  affair,  and  face  hostile  mobs  and  win  them 
to  the  side  of  the  North.  "To  him  alone,"  says  one  who 
heard  him,  "  should  be  attributed  the  credit  of  having  turned 
the  tide  of  English  opinion  and  of  laying  the  foundation  of 
that  better  judgment  which  prevented  the  government  from 
officially  recognizing  the  Confederacy."  Beecher  himself,  in 
speaking  of  the  difficulties  he  had  to  overcome,  says  :  ''  I  had 
to  speak  extempore  on  subjects  the  most  delicate  and  diffi- 
cult as  between  our  nations,  where  even  the  shading  of  words 
was  of  importance,  and  yet  I  had  to  outscream  a  mob  and 
drown  the  roar  of  a  multitude.    Ijt  was  like  driving  a  team 


340  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

of  runaway  horses  and  making  love  to  a  .lady  at  the  same 
time."  Justin  McCarthy  calls  Beecher  "the  most  dextrous 
and  powerful  platform  speaker  "  he  ever  heard. 

The  difference  in  the  cordiality  with  which  he  was  received 
is  shown  in  the  fact  that  when  he  first  came  to  London  the 
landlord  gave  him  a  room  next  to  the  rafters,  but  when  he 
returned  after  his  triumphal  march,  landlord  and  servants  in 
livery  met  him  at  the  door,  and  no  suite  of  parlors  on  the 
second  floor  was  too  good  for  him. 

As  a  preacher  he  was  the  most  famous  and  most  powerful 
of  this  era,  "the  grandest  single  force,"  as  President  Barrows 
puts  it,  "  ever  given  to  the  American  pulpit."  He  became  a 
great  public  force,  a  greater  factor  in  politics  than  most  of 
our  statesmen,  a  fearless  advocate  of  political,  social,  and  re- 
ligious reform.  Even  though  his  enemies  defamed  him  and 
tried  to  ruin  his  character,  insomuch  that  multitudes  believed 
the  slanderous  reports,  yet  long  before  his  death  he  had  con- 
quered the  prejudice  against  him  and  regained  his  hold  upon 
the  affections  of  the  masses.  Wherever  he  spoke  the  crowds 
were  limited  only  by  the  space  in  the  halls.  Such  was  the 
change  of  sentiment  that  legislatures  and  courts  did  him 
honor,  and  there  was  every  token  of  increasing  kindness  and 
affection  even  to  his  death. 


HENRY  WARD  BEECHER  341 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  IN  AMERICA 

The  following  selections  are  taken  from  the  five  great  speeches  for  the 
Union,  delivered  in  1863  in  the  chief  centers  of  Great  Britain,  by  Henry- 
Ward  Beecher.  They  may  be  said  to  be  five  parts  of  one  great  speech  on 
the  principles  involved  in  the  American  war.  This  is  looked  upon  as  one 
of  the  greatest  triumphs  in  the  history  of  oratory,  for  it  resulted  in  winning 
England  from  an  attitude  of  pronounced  hostility  to  one  of  open  favor. 

I.    PRINCIPLES  OF  SELF-GOVERNMENT 

From  the  speech  delivered  at  Manchester,  England,  October  9,  1863. 
The  meeting  was  held  in  Free  Trade  Hall  and  was  attended  by  fully 
six  thousand  people.  The  chairman  of  the  evening  presented  an  address 
of  welcome  to  Mr.  Beecher  from  the  Emancipation  Society.  An  effort 
was  made  to  break  up  the  meeting,  but  the  lovers  of  fair  play  were  in  the 
majority  and  they  resolved  that  the  speaker  should  be  heard. 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  address  which  you  have  kindly  presented  to 
me  contains  matters  both  personal  and  national.  You  have  bqen 
pleased  to  speak  of  me  as  one  connected  with  the  great  cause  of 
civil  and  religious  liberty.  I  covet  no  higher  honor  than  to  have 
my  name  joined  to  the  list  of  that  great  company  of  noble  Eng- 
lishmen from  whom  we  derived  our  doctrines  of  liberty.  For 
although  there  is  some  opposition  to  what  are  here  called  American 
ideas,  what  are  these  American  ideas }  They  are  simply  English 
ideas  bearing  fruit  in  America.  We  bring  back  American  sheaves, 
but  the  seed  com  we  got  in  England  ;  and  if  we  have  reared  mightier 
harvests,  every  sheaf  contains  the  grain  that  has  made  Old  England 
rich  for  a  hundred  years. 

Allusion  has  been  made  by  one  of  the  gentlemen  to  words  or 
deeds  of  mine  that  might  be  supposed  to  be  offensive  to  English- 
men. I  cannot  say  how  that  may  be.  I  am  sure  that  I  have  never, 
thought,  in  the  midst  of  this  mighty  struggle  at  home,  which  has 
taxed  every  power  and  energy  of  our  people,  whether  my  words 
spoken  in  truth  and  with  fidelity  to  duty  would  be  liked  in  this 
shape  or  in  that  shape  by  one  or  another  person  either  in  England 
or  America.    I  have  had  one  simple,  honest  purpose,  which  I  have 


342  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

pursued  ever  since  I  have  been  in  public  life,  and  that  was  with 
all  the  strength  that  God  has  given  to  me  to  maintain  the  cause 
of  the  poor  and  of  the  weak  in  my  own  country.  And  if,  in  the 
height  and  heat  of  conflict,  some  words  have  been  oversharp, 
and  some  positions  have  been  taken  heedlessly,  are  you  the  men 
to  call  one  to  account  ?  What  if  some  exquisite  dancing  master, 
standing  on  the  edge  of  a  battle,  where  Richard  Coeur  de  Lion 
swung  his  ax,  criticized  him  by  saying  that  "  his  gestures  and 
postures  violated  the  proprieties  of  polite  life."  When  dandies 
fight  they  think  how  they  look,  but  when  men  fight  they  think 
only  of  deeds. 

But  I  am  not  here  either  on  trial  or  on  defense.  It  matters 
not  what  I  have  said  on  other  'occasions  and  under  different  cir- 
cumstances. Here  I  am  before  you,  willing  to  tell  you  what  I 
think  about  England  or  any  person  in  it.  I  have  never  ceased  to 
feel  that  war,  or  even  unkind  feelings  between  two  such  great 
nations,  would  be  one  of  the  most  unpardonable  and  atrocious 
offenses  that  the  world  ever  beheld,  and  I  have  regarded  every- 
thing, therefore,  which  needlessly  led  to  those  feelings  out  of 
which  war  comes,  as  being  in  itself  wicked.  The  same  blood  is  in  us. 
We  are  your  children,  or  the  children  of  your  fathers  and  ancestors. 
You  and  we  hold  the  same  substantial  doctrines.  We  have  the  same 
mission  amongst  the  nations  of  the  earth.  Never  were  mother  and 
daughter  set  forth  to  do  so  queenly  a  thing  in  the  kingdom  of  God 
as  England  and  America.  Do  you  ask  why  we  are  so  sensitive,  and 
why  have  we  hewn  England  with  our  tongue  as  we  have  ?  I  will  tell 
you  why.  There  is  no  man  who  can  offend  you  so  deeply  as  the 
one  you  love  most.  Now  when  we  thought  England  was  seeking 
opportunity  to  go  with  the  South  against  us  of  the  North,  it  hurt  us 
as  no  other  nation's  conduct  could  hurt  us  on  the  face  of  the  globe  ; 
and  if  we  spoke  some  words  of  intemperate  heat,  we  spoke  them 
in  the  mortification  of  disappointed  affection.  It  has  been  supposed 
that  I  have  urged  or  threatened  war  with  England.  Never !  This 
I  have  said,  and  this  I  repeat  now,  and  here  —  that  the  cause 
of  constitutional  government  and  of  universal  liberty  as  associated 


HENRY  WARD  BEECHER  343 

with  it  in  our  country  was  so  dear,  so  sacred,  that  rather  than 
betray  it  we  would  give  the  last  child  we  had,  that  we  would 
not  relinquish  this  conflict  though  other  states  rose  and  entered 
into  a  league  with  the  South,  and  that,  if  it  were  necessary,  we 
would  maintain  this  great  doctrine  of  representative  government 
in  America  against  the  armed  world — against  England  and  France. 
All  that  we  say  is,  let  France  and  England  keep  hands  off;  if 
we  cannot  manage  this  rebellion  by  ourselves,  then  let  it  be  not 
managed  at  all. 

We  do  not  allow  ourselves  to  doubt  the  issue  of  this  conflict.  It 
is  only  a  question  of  time.  For  such  inestimable  principles  as 
are  at  stake,  —  of  self-government,  of  representative  government, 
of  any  government  at  all,  of  free  institutions  rejected  because 
they  inevitably  will  bring  liberty  to  slaves  unless  subverted,  of 
national  honor,  and  fidelity  to  solemn  national  trusts,  —  for  all 
these  war  is  waged,  and  if  by  war  these  shall  be  secured,  not  one 
drop  of  blood  will  be  wasted,  not  one  life  squandered.  The  suf- 
fering will  have  purchased  a  glorious  future  of  inconceivable  peace 
and  happiness.  Nor  do  we  deem  the  result  doubtful.  The  popu- 
lation is  in  the  North  and  West.  The  wealth  is  there.  The  popular 
intelligence  of  the  country  is  there.  There  only  is  there  an  educated 
common  people.  The  right  doctrines  of  civil  government  are  with 
the  North.  It  will  not  be  long  before  one  thing  more  will  be  with 
the  North  —  victory.  Men  on  this  side  are  impatient  at  the  long 
delay ;  but  if  we  can  bear  it,  can't  you  ?  You  are  quite  at  ease ; 
we  are  not.  You  are  not  materially  affected  in  any  such  degree 
as  many  parts  of  our  own  land  are.  But  if  the  day  shall  come  in 
one  year,  in  two  years,  or  in  ten  years  hence,  when  the  old  Star^ 
and  Stripes  shall  float  over  every  state  of  America ;  if  the  day  shall 
come  when  that  which  was  the  accursed  cause  of  this  dire  and 
atrocious  war  —  slavery  —  shall  be  done  away ;  if  the  day  shall 
have  come  when  through  all  the  Gulf  States  there  shall  be  liberty 
of  speech,  as  there  never  has  been ;  when  there  shall  be  liberty  of 
the  press,  as  there  never  has  been ;  when  men  shall  have  common 
schools  to  send  their  children  to,  which  they  never  have  had  in  the 


344  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

South ;  if  the  day  shall  come  when  the  land  shall  not  be  parceled 
into  gigantic  plantations  in  the  hands  of  a  few  rich  oligarchs,  but 
shall  be  divided  to  honest  farmers,  every  man  owning  his  little  ; 
in  short,  if  the  day  shall  come  when  the  simple  ordinances,  the 
fruition,  and  privileges  of  civil  liberty  shall  prevail  in  every  part 
of  the  United  States,  it  will  be  worth  all  the  dreadful  blood,  and 
tears,  and  woe.  You  are  impatient;  and  yet  God  dwelleth  in 
eternity,  and  has  an  infinite  leisure  to  roll  forward  the  affairs  of 
men,  not  to  suit  the  hot  impatience  of  those  who  are  but  children 
of  a  day  and  cannot  wait  or  linger  long,  but  according  to  the  in- 
finite circle  on  which  he  measures  time  and  events.  He  expedites 
or  retards,  as  it  pleases  him ;  and  yet  if  he  heard  our  cries  or 
prayers,  not  thrice  would  the  months  revolve  but  peace  would 
come.  Yet  the  strong  crying  and  prayers  of  millions  have  not 
brought  peace,  but  only  thickening  war.  We  accept  the  providence  ; 
the  duty  is  plain. 

So  rooted  is  this  English  people  in  the  faith  of  liberty  that  it 
were  an  utterly  hopeless  task  for  any  minion  or  sympathizer  of 
the  South  to  sway  the  popular  sympathy  of  England,  if  this  Eng- 
lish people  believe  that  this  was  none  other  than  a  conflict  between 
liberty  and  slavery.  It  is  just  that.  The  conflict  may  be  masked 
by  our  institutions.  It  is  none  the  less  a  contest  for  liberty  and 
against  slavery,  because  it  is  primarily  a  conflict  for  the  Union. 
It  is  by  that  Union,  vivid  with  liberty,  that  we  have  to  scourge 
oppression  and  establish  liberty.  Union,  in  the  future,  means  jus- 
tice, liberty,  popular  rights.  Only  slavery  has  hitherto  prevented 
Union  from  bearing  such  fruit. 

Before  the  War  of  Independence  slavery  was  decaying  in  the 
North,  from  moral  and  physical  causes  combined.  It  ceased  in 
New  England  with  the  adoption  of  our  Constitution.  At  a  later 
period  New  York  passed  an  Emancipation  Act.  It  has  been  said 
that  she  sold  her  slaves.  No  slander  was  ever  greater.  The  most 
careful  provision  was  made  against  sale.  No  man  traveling  out 
of  the  state  of  New  York  after  the  passing  of  the  Emancipation 
Act  was  permitted  to  have  any  slave  with  him,  unless  he  gave 


HENRY  WARD  BEECHER  345 

bonds  for  his  reappearance  with  him.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the 
slaves  were  emancipated  without  compensation,  to  take  effect  gradu- 
ally class  by  class.  But  after  a  trial  of  half  a  score  of  years  the 
people  found  this  gradual  emancipation  was  intolerable.  It  was 
like  gradual  amputation.  They  therefore,  by  another  act  of  legis- 
lation, declared  immediate  emancipation  and  that  took  effect ;  and 
so  slavery  perished  in  the  state  of  New  York.  Substantially  so  it 
was  in  New  Jersey  and  in  Pennsylvania ;  never  was  there  an  ex- 
ample of  states  that  emancipated  slaves  more  purely  from  moral 
conviction  of  the  wrong  of  slavery. 

I  know  that  it  is  said  that  Northern  capital  and  Northern  ships 
were  employed  in  the  slave  trade.  To  an  extent  it  was  so.  But 
is  there  any  community  that  lives,  in  which  there  are  not  mis- 
creants who  violate  the  public  conscience  ?  Then  and  since,  the 
man  who  dared  to  use  his  capital  and  his  ships  in  this  infamous 
traffic  hid  himself,  and  did  by  agents  what  he  was  ashamed  to 
be  known  to  have  done  himself.  Any  man  in  the  North  who 
notoriously  had  part  or  lot  in  a  trade  so  detested,  would  have 
been  branded  with  the  mark  of  Cain. 


II.  REGULATED  CHRISTIAN  LIBERTY 

Taken  from  the  speech  delivered  in  Glasgow,  October  13,  1863. 
Mr.  Beecher  makes  reference  to  his  first  visit  to  the  land  of  Burns.  "  I 
come  to  Scotland,  almost  as  a  pilgrim  would  to  Jerusalem,  to  see  those 
scenes  whose  story  has  stirred  my  imagination  from  my  earliest  youth." 
Then  he  calls  attention  to  the  difficulties  of  addressing  those  whose 
views  differ  greatly  from  his.  "  I  am  aware  that  a  personal  prejudice  has 
been  diligently  excited  against  me."    He  proceeds  as  follows : 

I  have  been  accustomed  freely,  and  at  all  times,  at  home  to 
speak  what  I  thought  to  be  sober  truth  both  of  blame  and  of  praise 
of  Great  Britain,  and  if  you  do  not  want  to  hear  a  man  express  his 
honest  sentiments  fearlessly,  then  I  do  not  want  to  speak  to  you. 
If  I  never  spared  my  own  country,  if  I  never  spared  the  American 
church,  nor  the  government,  nor  my  own  party,  nor  my  personal 
friends,  did  you  expect  I  would  treat  you  better  than  I  did  those 


346  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

of  my  own  country  ?  For  I  have  felt  from  the  first  that  I  hold  a 
higher  allegiance  than  any  I  owe  to  man  —  to  God,  and  to  that 
truth  which  is  God's  ordinance  in  human  affairs ;  and  for  the  sake 
of  that  higher  truth  I  have  loved  my  country,  but  I  have  loved 
truth  more  than  my  country.  When  therefore  the  cause  of  truth 
and  justice  is  put  in  the  scale  against  my  own  country,  I  would 
disown  country  for  the  sake  of  truth  ;  and  when  the  cause  of  truth 
and  justice  is  put  in  the  scale  against  Great  Britain,  I  would  disown 
her  rather  than  betray  what  I  understood  to  be  the  truth. 

We  are  bound  to  establish  liberty,  regulated  Christian  liberty,  as 
the  law  of  the  American  continent.  This  is  our  destiny,  this  is  that 
toward  which  the  education  of  the  rising  generation  has  been  more 
and  more  assiduously  directed  as  the  peculiar  glory  of  America  — 
to  destroy  slavery  and  root  it  out  of  our  land,  and  to  establish  in 
its  place  a  discreet,  intelligent,  constitutional,  regulated.  Christian 
liberty.  We  have  accepted  this  destiny  and  this  task ;  and  if  in 
accomplishing  this  a  part  of  our  own  people  oppose  us  we  shall 
go  right  against  our  people  to  that  destiny.  If  France  undertakes 
to  interfere,  and  to  say,  "  You  shall  not,"  much  as  we  would  regret 
to  be  at  war  with  any  nation  on  the  globe,  or  with  France  in 
particular,  who  befriended  us  in  our  early  struggles  and  trials,  still 
the  cause  of  liberty  is  dearer  to  us  than  any  foreign  alliance,  and 
we  shall  certainly  say,  ''  Stand  off,  this  is  our  work  and  must  not 
be  hindered."  If  they  bring  war  to  us,  they  shall  have  war;  for 
no  foreign  nation  shall  meddle  with  inipunity.  with  our  domestic 
struggle.  If  Great  Britain  herself,  tied  to  us  by  so  many  interests, 
endeared  by  so  many  historic  associations,  to  whom  we  can  never 
pay  the  debt  of  love  we  owe  her  for  those  men  who  wrought  out, 
in  fire  and  blood,  those  very  principles  of  civil  liberty  for  which  we 
are  now  contending  —  yet,  if  even  Britain  shall  openly  or  secretly 
seek  the  establishment  on  our  national  territory  of  an  independent 
slaveholding  empire,  we  will  denounce  her  word  and  deed ;  and, 
terrible  and  cruel  as  will  be  the  necessity,  we  will,  if  we  must,  op- 
pose arms  to  arms.  If  Great  Britain  is  for  slavery,  I  am  against 
Great  Britain.    If  Great  Britain  is  true  to  her  instincts  and  the 


HENRY  WARD  BEECHER  347 

interests  of  her  illustrious  history,  and  to  her  own  documents,  laws, 
and  institutions ;  if  she  is  yet  in  favor  of  liberty,  as  she  has  always 
been  here  and  everywhere  in  the  world,  I  am  for  Great  Britain, 
and  shall  be  proud  of  my  blood  and  boast  that  I  have  a  share  in 
your  ancestral  glory.  My  prayer  shall  be  that  Great  Britain  and 
America,  joined  in  religion  and  in  liberty,  may  march  shoulder  to 
shoulder  in  the  great  enterprise  of  bearing  the  blessings  of  religion 
and  liberty  around  the  globe. 

The  triumph  of  the  North  in  this  conflict  will  be  the  triumph 
of  free  institutions,  even  if  the  Northern  people  and  government 
could  be  proved  to  have  been  delinquent  in  every  individual  and 
in  every  public  officer.  Large  as  is  our  country,  independent  in 
opinions,  and  hitherto  divided  in  sentiment  about  slavery,  never 
was  any  people  so  sincere,  so  religiously  earnest,  as  is  now  the 
North.  But  what  if  its  people  were  insincere,  its  President  a 
trickster,  bis  Emancipation  Proclamation  a  hollow  pretense  ?  What 
if  the  North  were  as  cruel  to  colored  people  as  slavery  is  ?  All  that 
would  not  change  the  inevitable  fact  that  the  triumph  of  the  North 
carries  with  it  her  free  institutions  all  over  the  continent.  It  is  a 
war  of  principles  and  of  institutions.  The  victory  will  be  a  victory 
of  principles  and  of  institutions.  This  is  avowed  by  the  South  as 
well  as  by  us.  If  the  North  prevails,  she  carries  over  the  continent 
her  pride  of  honest  work,  her  free  public  schools,  her  Homestead 
Law,  which  gives  to  every  man  who  will  occupy  it  a  hundred  and 
sixty  acres  of  land;  her  free  press,  her  love  and  habit  of  free 
speech,  her  untiring  industry,  her  thrift,  frugality,  and  morality,  and 
above  all  her  democratic  ideas  of  human  rights  and  her  old  English 
notions  of  a  commonwealth,  and,  not  least,  her  free  churches  with 
their  vast  train  of  charities  and  beneficences  I 

But  I  return  to  the  shameless  and  impudent  assertion  that  the 
North  has  her  own  ways  of  managing  her  own  affairs.  She  is 
guided  by  the  genius  of  her  own  institutions,  and  not  by  the  whims 
of  unsympathizing  critics  three  thousand  miles  off,  ignorant  of  her 
ideas,  history,  institutions,  emergencies,  and  difficulties.  But  there 
has  never  before,  since  time  began,  been  a  spectacle  like  that  in 


348  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

America.  A  million  men  have  been  on  foot  in  the  army  and  navy, 
every  man  a  volunteer,  the  best  blood  of  the  North  —  her  workmen, 
her  farmers  and  artisans,  her  educated  sons,  lawyers,  doctors, 
ministers  of  the  gospel,  young  men  of  wealth  and  refinement,  side 
by  side  with  the  modest  sons  of  toil,  and  every  man  a  volunteer ! 
They  have  come,  not  like  the  Goths  and  Huns  from  a  wandering 
life  or  inclement  skies,  to  seek  fairer  skies  and  richer  soil ;  but  from 
homes  of  luxury,  from  cultivated  farms,  from  busy  workshops,  from 
literary  labors,  from  the  bar,  the  pulpit,  and  the  exchange,  thronging 
around  the  old  national  flag  that  had  symbolized  liberty  to  mankind, 
all  moved  by  a  profound  love  of  country  and  firmly,  fiercely  deter- 
mined that  the  motherland  shall  not  be  divided.  It  is  this  sublime 
patriotism  which,  on  every  side,  I  hear  stigmatized  as  the  mad  rush 
of  national  ambition.  Has  then  the  love  of  country  run  so  low  in 
Great  Britain,  that  the  rising  of  a  nation  to  defend  its  territory,  its 
government,  its  flag,  and  all  the  institutions  over  which  that  has 
waved,  is  a  theme  for  cold  aversion  in  the  pulpit  and  sneers  in 
the  pew?  Is  generosity  dead  in  England,  that  she  will  not  admire 
in  her  children  those  very  qualities  which  have  made  the  children 
proud  of  the  memories  of  their  common  English  ancestors  ? 

One  word  more.  I  protest,  in  the  name  of  all  that  there  is  in 
kindred  blood,  against  Great  Britain  putting  herself  in  such  a  po- 
sition that  she  cannot  be  in  cordial  and  ever-during  alliance  with 
the  free  republic  in  America.  I  declare  to  you  that  it  is  a  mon- 
strous severance  of  your  only  natural  alliance,  for  Great  Britain  to 
turn  aside  from  free  America  and  seek  close  relations  with  des- 
potism !  You  owe  yourselves  to  us,  and  we  owe  ourselves  to  you. 
You  ought  to  live  at  peace  with  France  —  you  ought  to  study  their 
reciprocal  interest  and  they  yours.  But  after  all,  while  you  should 
be  in  Christian  peace  with  France,  I  tell  you  it  is  unnatural  for 
England  to  be  in  closer  alliance  with  France  than  America.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  truly  unnatural  for  America,  when  she  would  go 
into  a  foreign  alliance,  to  seek .  her  alliance  with  Russia.  I  declare 
that  America  should  study  the  prosperity  of  Russia,  as  of  every 
nation  of  the  globe;  but  when  she  gives  her  heart  and  hand  in 


HENRY  WARD  BEECHER  349 

alliance,  she  owes  it  to  Great  Britain.  And  when  Great  Britain 
turns  to  find  one  that  she  can  lean  on,  can  go  to  with  all  her 
heart,  one  of  her  own,  —  we  are  her  eldest-born,  strongest,  —  to 
us  she  must  come.  A  war  between  England  and  America  would  be 
like  murder  in  the  family  —  unnatural  —  monstrous  beyond  words 
to  depict.  Now  then,  if  that  be  so,  it  is  our  duty  to  avoid  all  cause 
and  occasion  of  offense.  But  remember  —  remember  —  we  are 
carrying  out  our  dead.  Our  sons,  our  brothers'  sons,  our  sisters' 
children  —  they  are  in  this  great  war  of  liberty  and  of  principle. 
We  are  taxing  all  our  energies.  You  are  at  peace ;  and  if  in  the 
flounderings  of  this  gigantic  conflict  we  accidentally  tread  on  your 
feet,  are  we  or  you  to  have  most  patience  ?  Yet  it  was  in  the  hour 
of  our  mortal  anguish,  when  by  an  unauthorized  act  one  of  the 
captains  of  our  navy  seized  a  British  ship  for  which  our  govern- 
ment instantly  offered  all  reparation,  that  a  British  army  was  hurried 
to  Canada.  I  do  not  undertake  to  teach  the  law  that  governs  the 
question ;  but  this  I  do  undertake  to  say,  and  I  will  carry  every 
generous  man  in  this  audience  with  me,  when  I  affirm  that  if 
between  America,  bent  double  with  the  anguish  of  this  bloody  war, 
and  Great  Britain,  who  sits  at  peace,  there  is  to  be  forbearance  on 
either  side,  it  should  be  on  your  side. 

Here  then  I  rest  my  cause  to-night,  asking  every  one  of  you 
to  unite  with  me  in  praying  that  God,  the  arbiter  of  the  fates  of 
nations,  will  so  guide  the  issue  that  those  who  struggle  for  liberty 
shall  be  victorious  ;  and  that  God,  who  sways  the  hearts  of  nations, 
may  so  sway  the  hearts  of  Great  Britain  and  America  that  not  to 
the  remotest  period  of  time  shall  there  be  dissension,  but  golden 
concord  between  them,  for  their  own  sakes  and  for  the  good  of  the 
whole  world. 


350  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

III.    DIFFICULTIES  OF  UNION 

From  the  speech  delivered  in  Edinburgh,  October  14,  1863.  Every 
available  foot  of  space  was  occupied  by  the  dense  throng  which  crowded 
into  the  hall,  and  hundreds  could  not  gain  admission.  Beecher  declared 
in  opening  that  he  was  "  not  a  partisan  seeking  proselytes " ;  that  he 
had  no  other  interests  than  those  of  truth  and  justice ;  and  that  all  he 
desired  was  to  give  a  "  full  and  frank  expression  "  of  his  views  on  affairs 
as  they  existed  in  America. 

It  shall  be  my  business  to  speak,  for  the  most  part,  of  what  I 
know,  and  so  to  speak  that  you  shall  be  in  no  doubt  whatever  of 
my  convictions. 

America  has  been  going  through  an  extraordinary  revolution, 
unconsciously  and  interiorly,  which  began  when  her  present  national 
form  was  assumed,  which  is  now  developing  itself,  but  which 
existed  and  was  in  progress  just  as  much  before  as  now.  The  earlier 
problem  was  how  to  establish  an  absolute  independence  instates  from 
all  external  control.  Next,  how,  out  of  independent  states  to  form 
a  nation,  yet  without  destroying  local  sovereignty.  The  period  of 
germination  and  growth  of  the  Union  of  the  separate  colonies 
is  threefold.  The  first  colonies  that  planted  the  American  shores 
were  separate,  and  jealous  of  their  separateness.  Sent  from  the 
mother  country  with  a  strong  hatred  of  oppression,  they  went 
with  an  intense  individualism,  and  sought  to  set  up,  each  party, 
its  little  colony,  where  they  would  be  free  to  follow  their  convic- 
tions and  the  dictates  of  conscience.  And  nothing  is  more  charac- 
teristic of  the  earlier  politics  of  the  colonists  than  their  jealous 
isolation,  for  fear  that  even  contact  would  contaminate.  Two 
or  three  efforts  were  made  within  the  first  twenty  or  twenty-five 
years  of  their  existence  to  bring  them  together  in  union.  Dele- 
gates met  and  parted,  met  again  and  parted.  Indian  wars  drove 
them  together.  It  became,  by  external  dangers,  necessary  that 
there  should  be  a  union  of  those  early  colonies,  but  there  was 
a  fear  that  in  going  into  union  they  would  lose  something  of 
the  sovereignty  that  belonged  to  them  as  colonial  states.  The 
first  real  union  that  took  place  was  that  of  1643,  between  the 


HENRY  WARD  BEECHER  35 1 

colonists  of  what  is  now  New  England.  It  was  not  till  1777,  a 
year  and  a  half  after  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  while 
the  colonies  were  at  full  war  with  the  mother  country,  that  what 
is  called  the  Articles  of  Federation  were  adopted.  But  about  ten 
years  after  these  articles  were  framed  they  were  found  to  be 
utterly  inadequate  for  the  exigencies  of  the  times  ;  and  in  1787  the 
present  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was  adopted  by  con- 
vention, and,  at  different  dates  thereafter,  ratified  by  the  thirteen 
states  that  first  constituted  the  present  Union. 

Now  during  all  this  period  there  is  one  thing  to  be  remarked, 
and  that  is,  the  jealousy  of  state  independence.  The  states  were 
feeling  their  way  toward  nationality ;  and  the  rule  and  measure 
of  the  wisdom  of  every  step  was,  how  to  maintain  individuality 
with  nationality.  That  was  their  problem.  How  can  there  be 
absolute  independence  in  local  government  with  perfect  nation- 
ality ?  Slavery  was  only  incidental  during  all  this  long  period ; 
but  in  reading  from  contemporaneous  documents  and  debates 
that  took  place  in  conventions  both  for  confederation  and  for 
final  union,  it  is  remarkable  that  the  difficulties  which  arose  were 
difficulties  of  representation,  difficulties  of  taxation,  difficulties  of 
tariff  and  revenue ;  and,  so  far  as  we  can  find,  neither  North  nor 
South  anticipated  in  the  future  any  of  those  dangers  which  have 
overspread  the  continent  from  the  black  cloud  of  slavery.  The 
dangers  they  most  feared,  they  have  suffered  least  from ;  the  dan- 
gers they  have  suffered  from,  they  did  not  at  all  anticipate,  or  but 
little.  But  the  Union  was  formed.  The  Constitution,  defining  the 
national  power  conferred  by  the  states  on  the  federal  govern- 
ment, was  adopted.  Thenceforward,  for  fifty  years  and  more, 
the  country  developed  itself  in  wealth  and  political  power,  until, 
from  a  condition  of  feeble  states  exhausted  by  war,  it  rose  to  the 
dignity  of  a  first-class  nation. 

We  now  turn  our  attention  to  the  gradual  and  unconscious 
development  within  this  American  nation  of  two  systems  of  policy, 
antagonistic  and  irreconcilable.  Let  us  look  at  the  South  first. 
She  was  undergoing  unconscious  transmutation.   She  did  not  know 


352  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

it.  She  did  not  know  what  ailed  her.  She  felt  ill,  put  her  hand  on 
her  heart  sometimes ;  on  her  head  sometimes ;  but  had  no  doctor 
to  tell  her  what  it  was,  until  too  late ;  and  when  told  she  would 
not  believe.  For  it  is  a  fact  that  when  the  colonies  combined  in 
their  final  union,  slavery  was  waning  not  only  in  the  Middle  and 
Northern  states  but  also  in  the  South  itself.  When  therefore 
they  went  into  this  union,  slavery  was  perishing,  partly  by  climate 
in  the  North,  and  still  more  by  the  convictions  of  the  people,  and 
by  the  unproductive  character  of  farm  slavery.  The  first  period 
of  the  South  was  the  wane  and  weakness  of  slavery.  The  second 
period  is  the  increase  of  slavery,  and  its  apologetic  defense ;  for 
with  the  invention  of  the  cotton  gin  an  extraordinary  demand  for 
cotton  sprang  up.  Slave  labor  began  to  be  more  and  more  in 
demand,  and  the  price  of  slaves  rose.  Then  came  the  next  period, 
one  of  revolution  of  opinion  as  to  the  inferior  races  of  the  South, 
a  total  and  entire  change  in  the  doctrines  of  the  South  on  the 
question  of  human  rights  and  human  nature.  It  dates  from  Mr. 
Calhoun.  From  the  hour  that  Mr.  Calhoun  began  to  teach,  there 
commenced  a  silent  process  of  moral  deterioration.  I  call  it  a 
retrogression  in  morals  —  an  apostasy.  Men  no  longer  apologized 
for  slavery ;  they  learned  to  defend  it,  to  teach  that  it  was  the 
normal  condition  of  an  inferior  race ;  that  the  seeds  and  history 
of  it  were  in  the  Word  of  God ;  that  the  only  condition  in  which 
a  republic  can  be  prosperous  is  where  an  aristocracy  owns  the 
labor  of  the  community.  That  was  the  doctrine  of  the  South,  and 
with  that  doctrine  there  began  to  be  ambitious  designs  not  only 
for  the  maintenance  but  the  propagation  of  slavery.  'This  era  of 
propagation  and  aggression  constitutes  the  fourth  and  last  period 
of  the  revolution  of  the  South.  They  had  passed  through  a  whole 
cycle  of  changes.  These  changes  followed  certain  great  laws. 
No  sooner  was  the  new  philosophy  set  on  foot  than  the  South 
recognized  its  legitimacy  and  accepted  it  with  all  its  inferences  and 
inevitable  tendencies.  They  gave  up  wavering  and  misgivings, 
adopted  the  institution  —  praised  it,  loved  it,  defended  it,  sought 
to  maintain  it,  burned  to  spread  it.    During  the  last  fifteen  years 


HENRY  WARD  BEECHER  353 

I  believe  you  cannot  find  a  voice,  printed  or  uttered,  in  the  cotton 
states  of  the  South,  which  deplored  slavery.  All  believed  in  and 
praised  it,  and  found  authority  for  it  in  God's  Word.  Politicians 
admired  it,  merchants  appreciated  it,  the  whole  South  sang  paeans 
to  the  new-found  truth,  that  man  was  born  to  be  owned  by  man. 
This  change  of  doctrine  made  it  certain  that  the  South  would  be 
annoyed  and  irritated  by  a  Constitution  which,  with  all  its  faults, 
still  carried  the  God-given  principle  of  human  rights,  which  were 
not  to  be  taken  by  man  except  in  punishment  for  crime.  That 
Constitution,  and  the  policy  which  went  with  it  at  first,  began  to 
gnaw  at,  and  irritate,  and  fret  the  South,  after  they  had  adopted 
slavery  as  a  doctrine. 

The  great  cause  of  the  conflict  —  the  center  of  necessity, 
round  which  the  cannons  roar  and  the  bayonets  gleam  —  is  the 
preservation  of  slavery.  Beyond  slavery  there  is  no  difference 
between  North  and  South.  Their  interests  are  identical,  with  the 
exception  of  work.  The  North  is  for  free  work  —  the  South  is 
for  slave  work ;  and  the  whole  war  in  the  South,  though  it  is  for 
independence,  is,  nevertheless,  expressly  in  order  to  have  slavery 
more  firmly  established  by  that  independence.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  whole  policy  of  the  North  as  well  as  the  whole  work  of 
the  North,  rejoicing  at  length  to  be  set  free  from  antagonism, 
bribes,  and  intimidations,  is  for  liberty  —  liberty  for  every  man 
in  the  world. 

There  never  was  so  united  a  purpose  as  there  is  to-day  to 
crush  the  rebellion.  We  have  had  nearly  three  years  of  turmoil 
and  disturbance,  which  not  only  has  not  taken  away  that  deter- 
mination, but  has  increased  it.  The  loss  of  our  sons  in  battle  has 
been  grievous,  but  we  accept  it  as  God's  will,  and  we  are  deter- 
mined that  every  martyred  son  shall  have  a  representative  in  one 
hundred  liberated  slaves. 


354  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

IV.   FREEDOM  AND  PROSPERITY 

A  selection  from  the  speech  dehvered  at  Liverpool,  October  i6,  1863. 
This  was  the  stormiest  of  the  five  meetings.  Placards  had  been  dis- 
tributed inciting  the  people  to  give  Beecher  a  hostile  reception.  The 
demonstration  against  him  was  so  loud  and  prolonged  that  it  was  with  the 
utmost  difficulty  that  he  was  able  to  proceed. 

For  more  than  twenty-five  years  I  have  been  made  perfectly 
familiar  with  popular  assemblies  in  all  parts  of  my  country  except 
the  extreme  South.  There  has  not  for  the  whole  of  that  time  been 
a  single  day  of  my  life  when  it  would  have  been  safe  for  me  to  go 
south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  in  my  own  country,  and  all  for 
one  reason :  my  solemn,  earnest,  persistent  testimony  against  that 
which  I  consider  to  be  the  most  atrocious  thing  under  the  sun  — 
the  system  of  American  slavery  in  a  great  free  republic.  I  have 
passed  through  that  early  period,  when  right  of  free  speech  was 
denied  to  me.  Again  and  again  I  have  attempted  to  address  audi- 
ences that,  for  no  other  crime  than  that  of  free  speech,  visited  me 
with  all  manner  of  contumelious  epithets ;  and  now  since  I  have 
been  in  England,  although  I  have  met  with  greater  kindness  and 
courtesy  on  the  part  of  most  than  I  deserved,  yet,  on  the  other 
hand,  I  perceive  that  the  Southern  influence  prevails  to  some  extent 
in  England.  It  is  my  old  acquaintance ;  I  understand  it  perfectly 
and  I  have  always  held  it  to  be  an  unfailing  truth  that  where  a  man 
had  a  cause  that  would  bear  examination  he  was  perfectly  willing 
to  have  it  spoken  about.  And  when  I  saw  so  much  nei-vous  appre- 
hension if  I  were  permitted  to  speak,  when  I  found  they  were 
afraid  to  have  me  speak,  when  I  found  that  they  considered  my 
speaking  damaging  to  their  cause,  when  I  found  that  they  appealed 
from  facts  and  reasonings  to  mob  law,  I  said :  No  man  need  tell 
me  what  the  heart  and  secret  counsel  of  these  men  are.  They 
tremble,  and  are  afraid.  Now,  personally,  it  is  a, matter  of  very 
little  consequence  to  me  whether  I  speak  here  to-night  or  not.  But 
one  thing  is  very  certain  —  if  you  do  permit  me  to  speak,  you  will 
hear  very  plain  talking.    You  will  not  find  a  man  that  dared  to 


HENRY  WARD  BEECHER  355 

speak  about  Great  Britain  three  thousand  miles  off,  and  then  is 
afraid  to  speak  to  Great  Britain  when  he  stands  on  her  shores. 
And  if  I  do  not  mistake  the  tone  and  the  temper  of  Englishmen, 
they  had  rather  have  a  man  who  opposes  them  in  a  manly  way 
than  a  sneak  that  agrees  with  them  in  an  unmanly  way.  If  I  can 
carry  you  with  me  by  sound  convictions,  I  shall  be  immensely 
glad ;  but  if  I  cannot  carry  you  with  me  by  facts  and  sound  argu- 
ments, I  do  not  wish  you  to  go  with  me  at  all ;  and  all  that  I  ask 
is  simply  fair  play. 

That  nation  is  the  best  customer  that  is  freest,  because  freedom 
works  prosperity,  industry,  and  wealth.  Great  Britain  then,  aside 
from  moral  considerations,  has  a  direct  commercial  and  pecuniary 
interest  in  the  liberty,  civilization,  and  wealth  of  every  people  and 
every  nation  on  the  globe.  You  must  civilize  the  world  in  order  to 
make  a  better  class  of  purchasers.  If  you  were  to  press  Italy  down 
again  under  the  feet  of  despotism,  Italy,  discouraged,  could  draw 
but  very  few  supplies  from  you.  But  give  her  liberty,  kindle  schools 
throughout  her  valleys,  spur  her  industry,  make  treaties  with  her 
by  which  she  can  exchange  her  wine,  and  her  oil,  and  her  silk  for 
your  manufactured  goods ;  and  for  every  effort  that  you  make  in 
that  direction  there  will  come  back  profit  to  you  by  increased  traffic 
with  her.  If  Hungary  asks  to  be  an  unshackled  nation,  if  by 
freedom  she  will  rise  in  virtue  and  intelligence,  then  by  freedom 
she  will  acquire  a  more  multifarious  industry,  which  she  will  be 
willing  to  exchange  for  your  manufactures.  And  every  free  nation, 
every  civilized  people,  every  people  that  rises  from  barbarism  to 
industry  and  intelligence,  becomes  a  better  customer.  What  will 
be  the  result  if  this  present  struggle  shall  eventuate  in  the  separa- 
tion of  America,  making  the  South  a  slave  territory  exclusively  and 
the  North  a  free  territory ;  what  will  be  the  first  result  ?  You  will 
lay  the  foundation  for  carrying  the  slave  population  clear  through 
to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  That  is  the  first  step.  There  is  not  a  man 
who  has  been  a  leader  of  the  South  any  time  within  these  twenty 
years,  that  has  not  had  this  for  a  plan.  It  was  for  this  that  Texas 
was  invaded,  first  by  colonists,  next  by  marauders,  until  it  was 


356  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

wrested  from  Mexico.  It  was  for  this  that  they  engaged  in  the 
Mexican  War  itself,  by  which  the  vast  territory  reaching  to  the 
Pacific  was  added  to  the  Union.  Never  have  they  for  a  moment 
given  up  the  plan  of  spreading  the  American  institution,  as  they 
call  it,  straight  through  toward  the  West,  until  the  slave,  who  has 
washed  his  feet  in  the  Atlantic,  shall  be  carried  to  wash  them  in  the 
Pacific.  If  you  were  to  limit  slavery,  and  to  say  it  shall  go  so  far 
and  no  farther,  it  would  be  only  a  question  of  time  when  it  should 
die  of  its  own  intrinsic  weakness  and  disease.  This  was  the 
Northern  feeling.  The  North  was  true  to  the  doctrine  of  constitu- 
tional rights.  The  North  refused,  by  any  federal  action  within  the 
states,  to  violate  the  compacts  of  the  Constitution,  and  left  local 
compacts  unimpaired ;  but  feeling  herself  unbound  with  regard  to 
what  we  call  the  territories,  —  free  land  which  has  not  yet  state 
rights,  —  the  North  said  there  should  be  no  more  territory  cursed 
with  slavery.  With  unerring  instinct  the  South  said,  "  The  gov- 
ernment administered  by  Northern  men  on  the  principle  that  there 
shall  be  no  more  slave  territory,  is  a  government  fatal  to  slavery," 
and  it  was  on  that  account  that  they  seceded.  The  very  Constitu- 
tion which  they  said  they  could  not  live  under  when  they  left  the 
Union  they  took  again  immediately  afterwards,  altering  it  in  only 
one  point,  and  that  was,  making  the  fundamental  law  of  the  land 
to  be  slavery.  Let  no  man  undertake  to  say  in  the  face  of  intelli- 
gence —  let  no  man  undertake  to  delude  an  honest  community  by 
saying  —  that  slavery  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  secession.  Slavery 
is  the  framework  of  the  South ;  it  is  the  root  and  the  branch  of  this 
conflict  with  the  South.  Take  away  slavery  from  the  South,  and 
she  would  not  differ  from  us  in  any  respect.  There  is  not  a  single 
antagonistic  interest.  There  is  no  difference  of  race,  no  difference 
of  language,  no  difference  of  law,  no  difference  of  constitution  ;  the 
only  difference  between  us  is,  that  free  labor  is  in  the  North  and 
slave  labor  is  in  the  South. 


HENRY  WARD  BEECHER  357 

V.  A  MORAL  CONFLICT 

From  the  final  speech  made  in  London,  October  20,  1863.  The  meeting 
was  held  in  Exeter  Hall  under  the  auspices  of  the  Emancipation  Society. 
The  interest  in  Mr.  Beecher  and  his  mission  had  steadily  grown.  The  hall 
was  densely  packed,  so  that  it  was  almost  impossible  for  the  speaker  to  gain 
admission.  There  was  little  opposition  developed.  On  the  contrary,  popular 
sympathy  for  Mr.  Beecher  was  so  marked  that  his  reception  was  in  the 
nature  of  a  triumph. 

So  far  I  have  spoken  to  the  English  from  an  English  point  of 
view.  To-night  I  ask  you  to  look  at  this  struggle  from  an  American 
point  of  view,  and  in  its  moral  aspects  ;  that  is,  I  wish  you  to  take 
our  standpoint  for  a  little  while  and  to  look  at  our  actions  and 
motives,  not  from  what  the  enemy  says,  but  from  what  we  say. 
When  two  men  have  disagreed,  you  seldom  promote  peace  between 
them  by  attempting  to  prove  that  either  of  them  is  all  right  or 
either  of  them  is  all  wrong.  Now  there  has  been  some  disagreement 
of  feeling  between  America  and  Great  Britain.  I  don't  want  to 
argue  the  question  to-night,  which  is  right  and  which  is  wrong*;  but 
if  some  kind  neighbor  will  persuade  two  people  that  are  at  disa- 
greement to  consider  each  other's  position  and  circumstances,  it 
may  not  lead  either  to  adopt  the  other's  judgment,  but  it  may  lead 
them  to  say  of  each  other,  "  I  think  he  is  honest  and  means  well, 
even  if  he  be  mistaken."  You  may  not  thus  get  a  setdement  of  the 
difficulty,  but  you  will  get  a  setdement  of  the  quarrel.  I  merely 
ask  you  to  put  yourselves  in  our  track  for  one  hour,  and  look  at 
the  objects  as  we  look  at  them ;  after  that,  form  your  judgment 
as  you  please. 

The  first  and  earliest  mode  in  which  the  conflict  took  place 
between  North  and  South  was  purely  moral.  It  was  a  conflict 
simply  of  opinion  and  of  truths  by  argument ;  and  by  appeal  to 
the  moral  sense  it  was  sought  to  persuade  the  slaveholder  to  adopt 
some  plan  of  emancipation.  When  this  seemed  to  the  Southern 
sensitiveness  unjust  and  insulting,  it  led  many  in  the  North  to 
silence,  especially  as  the  South  seemed  to  apologize  for  slavery 
rather  than  to  defend  it  against  argument.    It  was  said:  "The  evil 


338  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

is  upon  us  ;  we  cannot  help  it.  We  are  sullied,  but  it  is  a  misfor- 
tune rather  than  a  fault.  It  is  not  right  for  the  North  to  meddle 
with  that  which  is  made  worse  by  being  meddled  with,  even  by 
argument  or  appeal."  That  was  the  earlier  portion  of  the  conflict. 
A  great  many  men  were  deceived  by  it.  As  a  minister  of  the  gospel 
preaching  to  sinful  men,  I  thought  it  my  duty  not  to  give  in  to  this 
doctrine ;  their  sins  were  on  them,  and  I  thought  it  my  duty  not  to 
soothe  them,  but  rather  to  expose  them. 

The  next  stage  of  the  conflict  was  purely  political.  The  South 
were  attempting  to  extend  their  slave  system  into  the  territories, 
and  to  prevent  free  states  from  covering  the  continent,  by  bringing 
into  the  Union  a  slave  state  for  every  free  state.  It  was  also  the 
design  and  endeavor  of  the  South  not  simply  to  hold  and  employ 
the  enormous  power  and  influence  of  the  central  executive,  but 
also  to  engraft  into  the  whole  federal  government  a  slave-state 
policy.  As  long  as  the  South  allowed  it  to  be  a  moral  and  political 
conflict,  we  were  content  to  meet  the  issue  as  one  of  policy.  But 
when  they  threw  down  the  gauntlet  of  war,  and  said  that  by  it. slav- 
ery was  to  be  adjudicated,  we  could  do  nothing  else  than  take  up 
the  challenge.  The  police  have  no  right  to  enter  your  house  as  long 
as  you  keep  within  the  law,  but  when  you  defy  the  laws  and  en- 
danger the  peace  and  safety  of  the  neighborhood  they  have  a  right 
to  enter.  So  in  our  constitutional  government ;  it  has  no  power  to 
touch  slavery  while  slavery  remains  a  state  institution.  But  when 
it  lifts  itself  up  out  of  its  state  humility  and  becomes  banded  to 
attack  the  nation,  it  becomes  a  national  enemy  and  has  no  longer 
exemption. 

And  for  the  North  to  have  lain  down  like  a  spaniel  —  to  have 
given  up  the  land  that  every  child  in  America  is  taught,  as  every 
child  in  Britain  is  taught,  to  regard  as  his  sacred  right  and  his  trust, 
to  have  given  up  the  mouths  of  our  own  rivers  and  our  mountain 
citadel  without  a  blow  —  would  have  marked  the  North  in  all  future 
history  as  craven  and  mean. 

No  people  with  patriotism  and  honor  will  give  up  territory  with- 
out a  struggle  for  it.  Would  you  give  it  up  ?  It  is  said  that  the  states 


HENRY  WARD  BEECHER  359 

are  owners  of  their  territory !  It  is  theirs  to  use,  not  theirs  to  run 
away  with.  We  have  equal  right  with  them  to  enter  it.  Let  me 
inform  you  that  when  those  states  first  sat  in  convention  to  form 
a  Union,  a  resolution  was  introduced  by  the  delegates  from  South 
Carolina  and  Virginia,  ''  That  we  now  proceed  to  form  a  national 
government."  The  delegate  from  Connecticut  objected.  The  New 
Englanders  were  state-rights  men,  and  the  South,  in  the  first  in- 
stance, seemed  altogether  for  a  national  government.  Connecticut 
objected,  and  a  debate  took  place  whether  it  should  be  a  constitu- 
tion for  a  mere  confederacy  of  states,  or  for  a  nation  formed  out 
of  those  states. 

At  this  convention  the  resolution  of  the  New  England  delegates 
that  they  should  form  a  confederacy  instead  of  a  nation  was  voted 
down,  and  never  came  up  again.  When,  later,  the  question  whether 
the  states  were  to  hold  their  autocracy  came  up  in  South  Carolina 
—  it  was  called  the  Carolina  heresy  —  that  too  was  put  down, 
and  never  lifted  its  head  up  again  until  this  secession,  when  it  was 
galvanized  to  justify  that  which  has  no  other  pretense  to  justice. 
I  would  like  to  ask  those  English  gentlemen  who  hold  that  it  is 
right  for  a  state  to  secede  when  it  pleases,  how  they  would  like  it, 
if  the  county  of  Kent  should  try  the  experiment.  The  men  who 
cry  out  for  secession  of  the  Southern  states  in  America  would  say, 
"  Kent  seceding  ?  Ah,  circumstances  alter  cases  1 "  The  Missis- 
sippi, which  is  our  Southern  door  and  hall  to  come  in  and  to  go 
out,  runs  right  through  the  territory  which  they  tried  to  rend  from 
us.  The  South  magnanimously  offered  to  let  us  use  it ;  but  what 
would  you  say  if,  on  going  home,  you  found  a  squad  of  gypsies 
seated  in  your  hall,  who  refused  to  be  ejected,  saying,  "  But  look 
here,  we  will  let  you  go  in  and  out  on  equitable  and  easy  terms  "  ? 

One  more  reason  why  we  will  not  let  this  people  go  is  because 
we  do  not  want  to  become  a  military  people.  A  great  many  say 
America  is  becoming  too  strong;  she  is  dangerous  to  the  peace 
of  the  world.  But  if  you  permit  or  favor  this  division,  the  South 
becomes  a  military  nation  and  the  North  is  compelled  to  become 
a  military  nation.    Along  a  line  of  fifteen  hundred  miles  she  must 


360  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

have  forts  and  men  to  garrison  them.  Now  any  nation  that  has 
a  large  standing  army  is  in  great  danger  of  losing  its  liberties. 
Before  this  war  the  legal  size  of  the  national  army  was  twenty-five 
thousand ;  that  was  all.  But  if  the  country  were  divided,  then  we 
should  have  two  great  military  nations  taking  its  place.  If  America, 
by  this  ill-advised  disruption,  is  forced  to  have  a  standing  army, 
like  a  boy  with  a  knife,  she  will  always  want  to  whittle  with  it.  It 
is  the  interest,  then,  of  the  world  that  the  nation  should  be  united, 
and  that  it  should  be  under  the  control  of  that  part  of  America 
that  has  always  been  for  peace,  that  it  should  be  wrested  from  the 
control  and  policy  of  that  part  of  the  nation  that  has  always  been 
for  more  territory,  for  filibustering,  for  insulting  foreign  nations. 

We  believe  that  the  war  is  a  test  of  our  institutions ;  that  it  is  a 
life-and-death  struggle  between  the  two  principles  of  liberty  and 
slavery ;  that  it  is  the  cause  of  the  common  people  all  the  world 
over.  We  believe  that  every  struggling  nationality  on  the  globe 
will  be  stronger  if  we  conquer  this  odious  oligarchy  of  slavery,  and 
that  every  oppressed  people  in  the  world  will  be  weaker  if  we  fail. 
The  sober  American  regards  the  war  as  part  of  that  awful  yet 
glorious  struggle  which  has  been  going  on  for  hundreds  of  years 
in  every  nation  between  right  and  wrong,  between  liberty  and  des- 
potism, between  freedom  and  bondage.  It  carries  with  it  the  whole 
future  condition  of  our  vast  continent  —  its  laws,  its  policy,  its  fate. 
And  standing  in  view  of  these  tremendous  realities  we  have  conse- 
crated all  that  we  have  —  our  children,  our  wealth,  our  national 
strength ;  we  lay  them  all  on  the  altar  and  say,  ''It  is  better  that 
they  should  all  perish  than  that  the  North  should  falter  and  betray 
this  trust  of  God,  this  hope  of  the  oppressed,  this  western  civiliza- 
tion." If  we  say  this  of  ourselves,  shall  we  say  less  of  the  slave- 
holders ?  If  we  are  willing  to  do  these  things,  shall  we  say,  "  Stop 
the  war  for  their  sakes  "  ?  Shall  we  be  tenderer  over  them  than 
over  ourselves?  Standing  by  my  cradle,  standing  by  my  hearth, 
standing  by  the  altar  of  the  church,  standing  by  all  the  places  that 
mark  the  name  and  memory  of  heroic  men  who  poured  out  their 
blood  and  lives  for  principle,  I  declare  that  in  ten  or  twenty  years 


HENRY  WARD  BEECHER  361 

of  war  we  will  sacrifice  everything  we  have  for  principle.  If  the 
love  of  popular  liberty  is  dead  in  Great  Britain,  you  will  not  under- 
stand us ;  but  if  the  love  of  liberty  lives  as  it  once  lived,  and  has 
worthy  successors  of  those  renowned  men  that  were  our  ancestors 
as  much  as  yours,  and  whose  example  and  principles  we  inherit  as  so 
much  seed  com  in  a  new  and  fertile  land,  then  you  will  understand 
our  firm,  invincible  determination  —  to  fight  this  war  through,  at 
all  hazards  and  at  every  cost. 

England,  because  she  is  a  Christian  nation,  because  she  has  the 
guardianship  of  the  dearest  principles  of  civil  and  religious  liberty, 
ought  to  be  friendly  with  every  nation  and  with  every  tongue.  But 
when  England  looks  out  for  an  ally  she  ought  to  seek  for  her  own 
blood,  her  own  language,  her  own  children.  And  I  stand  here  to 
declare  that  America  is  the  proper  and  natural  ally  of  Great  Britain. 
I  declare  that  all  sorts  of  alliances  with  continental  nations  as 
against  America  are  monstrous,  and  that  in  the  great  conflicts  of 
the  future,  when  civilization  is  to  be  extended,  when  commerce  is 
to  be  free  round  the  globe  and  to  carry  with  it  religion  and  civili- 
zation, then  two  flags  should  be  flying  from  every  man-of-war  and 
every  ship,  and  they  should  be  the  flag  with  the  cross  of  St.  George 
and  the  flag  with  the  stars  of  promise  and  of  hope. 


PHILLIPS   BROOKS 


Phillips  Brooks  (1835-1893)  —  a  splendid  man,  six  feet 
four  inches  tall,  broad-shouldered,  weight  about  two  hundred 
pounds,  head  of  classic  mold  silhouetted  against  the  subdued 

colors  of  a  church  chancel, 

a  face  of  wondrous  beauty 
and  kindness,  with  thought- 
ful, deep-set  eyes  and  ex- 
pressive mouth  responsive 
to  the  lofty  emotions  that 
welled  up  from  a  pure  heart, 
an  expression  that  caught 
the  glow  of  the  softened 
sunlight  as  it  shook  down 
from  the  dome  above,  add- 
ing splendor  to  a  radiant 
countenance — such  was  the 
picture  seen  by  a  student 
who  claimed  a  seat  every 
Sunday  afternoon  for  a  year 
in  the  east  gallery  of  Trinity 
Church,  Boston.  But  when 
this  wondrous  man  opened  his  lips  to  speak,  the  deep  tones 
of  his  voice  filled  the  vaulted  nave  and  transepts  while  the 
currents  of  his  spirit  flowed  so  naturally  into  the  soul  of 
the  student  that  the  physical  form  of  Phillips  Brooks  was 
obscured  in  the  irresistible  eloquence  that  permeated  his 
audience  and  inspired  them  to  loftier  ideals  of  life.  Such 
was  Phillips  Brooks  at  fifty-six  years  of  age,  at  the  height 

362 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS  363 

of  his  power  and   influence,  as  a  leader  of  men   and  the 
peerless  preacher  of  his  time. 

But  what  can  be  found  in  the  study  of  this  man's  life  to 
help  the  aspiring  student  of  oratory  on  the  highway  to  success  ? 
In  the  first  place,  Phillips  Brooks  was  well-born  —  the  fruit- 
age of  nine  generations  of  Puritan  stock  that  had  already 
produced  a  Wendell  Phillips  and  the  founders  of  Phillips 
Exeter  and  Phillips  Andover  academies,  and  Andover  The- 
ological Seminary.  Throughout  his  tender  formative  years 
and  well  into  mature  life  he  had  the  guidance  of  a  wise  father 
and  the  tender  solicitude  of  an  unusually  inspiring  mother. 
A  tutor,  Miss  Chapin,  prepared  him  for  the  grammar  school, 
and  at  eleven  years  of  age  he  entered  the  Boston  Latin 
School  and  prepared  for  college.  Here  he  acquired  a  taste 
for  the  classics.  It  is  said  that  he  cared  but  little  for  boyish 
sports,  but  was  eager  for  books  and  a  knowledge  of  men  and 
things.  To  this  may  be  traced  his  maturer  love  for  city  life 
and  his  fondness  for  a  metropolitan  parish.  In  the  fall  of 
185 1,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  he  entered  Harvard  College  where 
he  won  distinction  in  scholarship  and  was  one  of  the  editors 
of  the  Hmvard  Monthly.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  he 
was  a  product  of  old  Harvard,  which  laid  stress  upon  the 
classics  and  the  inspirational  side  of  education.  He  was  a 
follower  of  the  prescribed  curriculum,  but  claimed  his  full 
share  of  elective  privileges  so  far  as  they  contributed  to  liter- 
ary culture.  He  cared  but  little  for  the  mechanical  arts 
and  sciences,  and  had  an  aversion  to  formal  philosophy  and 
metaphysical  dogmas,  but  he  reveled  in  the  study  of  the  clas- 
sical dramatists  and  the  Greek  interpretation  of  life.  He  was 
a  rapid  worker  and  so  found  time  for  outside  reading  —  to 
forage  in  libraries  and  study  the  lives  of  great  men  like 
Luther,  Cromwell,  and  Mohammed.  He  was  graduated  in 
1855,  not  quite  twenty  years  of  age,  with  no  plan  for  the 


364  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

future ;  he  had  attained  scholarship  and  a  taste  for  Hterary  work, 
but  there  was  no  call  to  a  business  or  professional  life.  Then 
came  a  transitional  year  which  he  gave  to  the  consideration  of 
a  calling  in  life,  and  as  a  temporary  expedient  he  taught  in 
the  Boston  Latin  School.  He  made  a  failure  of  teaching,  but 
reached  a  clear  decision  to  enter  the  ministry  as  his  life  work. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-one  he  entered  the  Episcopal  Theolog- 
ical Seminary  at  Alexandria,  Virginia,  and  was  graduated  three 
years  later.  He  was  then  offered  an  assistant  pastorate  in  the 
Church  of  the  Holy  Trinity  in  Philadelphia  by  the  Reverend 
Alexander  Vinton,  D.D.,  who  had  watched  the  progress  of  the 
young  theologue  and  was  much  pleased  with  his  first  sermon  ; 
but  Phillips  Brooks  here  made  a  wise  choice  at  a  turning  point 
in  his  career  and  accepted  a  call  to  the  Church  of  the  Advent 
in  the  same  city.  The  value  of  this  decision  can  never  be 
fully  estimated.  At  this  period  of  his  life,  when  his  habits  of 
public  speech  were  forming,  it  cannot  be  stated  how  far  he 
might  have  imitated  the  methods  of  the  chief  pastor  of  Trinity ; 
but  certain  it  is  that  he  was  now  thrown  upon  his  own  resources 
and  required  to  work  out  his  own  methods.  He  grew  steadily 
as  a  preacher,  and  became  so  favorably  known  to  the  public 
that  calls  came  to  him  from  the  large  churches  of  Cincin- 
nati, Cleveland,  Harrisburg,  Providence,  Newport,  and  even 
San  Francisco. 

In  1 86 1  Dr.  Vinton  resigned  the  pastorate  of  Holy  Trinity, 
Philadelphia,  and  Mr.  Brooks  accepted  a  unanimous  call  to 
that  church.  Here  was  his  great  opportunity,  and  here  he 
rose  to  great  prominence  as  a  molder  of  public  thought  and 
the  expounder  of  the  gospel  of  peace,  in  the  midst  of  a 
fratricidal  war.  The  dramatic  scenes  that  surrounded  him, 
no  less  than  the  calling  of  his  high  mission,  spurred  him  to 
his  best  endeavor  at  all  times,  and  he  became  a  tower  of 
strength  in  Church  and  State. 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS  365 

At  the  close  of  the  war  he  was  offered  a  professorship  of 
ecclesiastical  history  in  the  Philadelphia  Divinity  School, —  a 
call  which  sorely  tempted  him, —  but  the  trustees  of  Trinity 
and  the  clergy  at  large  pointed  out  that  his  greatest  field  for 
usefulness  was  the  pulpit,  and  he  was  prevailed  upon  to  remain 
in  his  church.  -But  the  question  raised  revealed  the  fact  that 
the  young  preacher  felt  the  need  of  more  time  for  study  and 
preparation,  and  his  congregation  not  only  relieved  him  of 
some  of  his  pastoral  work,  but  gave  him  his  first  trip  abroad. 
This  opened  up  a  new  field  of  study  and  furnished  food  for 
thought  which  enlarged  his  mind  and  yielded  an  abundant 
return  to  his  congregation. 

In  1869  Dr.  Brooks  accepted  a  call  to  Trinity  Church, 
Boston,  to  which  he  gave  twenty-two  years  of  his  life.  From 
this  "throne  of  power"  he  preached  to  the  world  and  was 
recognized  as  the  most  potent  theological  force  of  his  time. 
His  profound  mastery  of  the  great  principles  of  human  life, 
his  study  of  man  and  nature,  his  knowledge  of  current  theo- 
logical aggression  that  was  battling  against  the  rising  tides 
of  skepticism,  together  with  his  rich  experience  and  com- 
plete control  of  his  own  powers,  now  swept  him  into  that 
productive  period  which  has  enriched  the  moral  world  with 
volume  after  volume  of  his  speeches.  Four  large  volumes  of 
his  sermons  and  a  volume  of  essays  and  addresses  were 
given  to  the  reading  world.  In  1877  his  Yale  lectures  on 
preaching  appeared,  giving  the  natural  functions  and  method 
of  the  sermon,  which  proved  at  once  a  guide  and  teacher 
for  the  ministerial  student.  In  1879  a  volume  of  lectures  on 
the  influence  of  Jesus  on  the  moral,  social,  emotional,  and 
intellectual  life  of  man  appeared.  "  Sermons  preached  in 
English  Churches  "  were  thrown  together  in  one  volume, 
and  numerous  special  sermons,  essays,  and  addresses  —  the 
very  names  of  which  would  fill  our  allotted  space  in  this 


366  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

book  —  found  a  reading  audience  in  pamphlet,  magazine, 
and  the  daily  press. 

In  1 88 1  Dr.  Brooks  was  called  a  second  time  to  take  the 
chair  of  Christian  ethics  in  Harvard  University  and  to  build 
a  great  school  of  modern  theological  thought  in  this  influential 
center  of  learning,  and  he  was  again  tempted  to  doff  the  sur- 
plice for  the  professorial  gown,  but  after  deep  consideration 
he  decided  to  remain  a  preacher  of  the  gospel.  He  consented, 
however,  to  become  one  of  the  Harvard  preachers,  and  he 
delivered  many  noted  sermons  before  the  students  on  special 
occasions.  He  also  accepted  more  calls  for  occasional  sermons 
outside  of  Trinity  Church. 

In  1 89 1  Dr.  Brooks  was  made  bishop  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  of  Massachusetts.  On  Sunday,  October  1 1, 
of  that  year  came  the  wonderful  farewell  sermon  which  marked 
the  close  of  his  pastorate  at  Trinity  Church.  His  sermon  on 
that  occasion  plainly  reveals  the  fact  that,  while  answering  a 
call  of  duty,  he  was  not  happy  in  this  change  to  a  new  field 
of  service  ;  his  words  were  brave  and  uplifting,  but  his  heart 
was  heavy,  nor  did  he  become  fully  reconciled  to  the  duties 
of  the  episcopacy  in  the  remaining  two  years  of  his  life. 

In  studying  the  oratorical  powers  of  Phillips  Brooks  it  may 
be  said  that  there  were  three  distinct  periods  in  his  preaching  : 
first,  as  a  young  man  in  Philadelphia,  when  he  wrote  with 
the  utmost  care  his  most  beautiful  sermons  bearing  the  magic 
touch  of  his  aesthetic  nature,  full  of  the  poetry  of  life  and 
abounding  with  the  divine  allegory  of  human  history,  and  yet 
at  times  bearing  the  dramatic  stamp  of  the  tragedy  of  civil 
war.  The  second  period  came  soon  after  his  removal  to  Bos- 
ton when  the  conflict  between  science  and  religion  was  rife, 
when  he  helped  to  stem  the  current  of  agnosticism  and  stood 
a  tower  of  strength  against  the  forces  that  were  trying  to 
undermine  the  gospel  of  faith.    The  third  period  dates  from 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS  367 

his  return  from  a  year's  leave  of  absence  in  1882  to  1883, 
which  he  spent  in  travel  abroad,  mainly  in  India,  in  which 
he  got  a  broad  knowledge  of  the  religions  of  the  world,  a 
wider  view  of  the  totality  of  man,  and.  when  his  preaching 
dealt  more  with  the  simple  issues  and  truths  of  life. 

His  fundamental  beliefs  were  simple  enough.  He  found 
humanity  in  Christianity.  "  Truth  is  not  an  end,  but  an 
instrument";  moral  health  is  tributary  to  life.  Religion  is 
nature,  and  Christ  is  the  perfect  interpreter  of  nature.  He 
says,  "  Religion  is  nothing  in  the  worlcl_but_the  highest  con- 
ception of  life  ;  the  unnatural  thing  is  irreligion."  His  view 
of  the  futiite  was  full  of  hope  and  joy,  and  his  ethical  optimism 
pervaded  all  his  spiritual  idealism.  He  preached  the  great, 
practical  realities  of  Christianity,  made  no  claims  to  prophecy, 
but  always  brought  a  message.  A  sermon  is  only  an  instru- 
ment to  interpret  the  Bible.  He  does  not  debate  his  subject 
or  appeal  to  external  authority,  but  his  evidence  was  inherent 
and  personal,  and  he  often  made  powerful  appeals  to  the 
experiences  of  men.  He  does  not  argue,  but  reasons  much, 
and  in  a  perfectly  natural  way  he  proclaims  or  affirms  and 
his  declaration  is  accepted  without  question.  He  reasons  from 
genus  to  species,  from  the  general  to  the  particular,  and  makes 
much  use  of  exposition  by  analogy.  He  had  a  genius  for  ora- 
torical personification  that  *'  put  soul  into  the  objects  of  his 
thought."  His  power  was  largely  in  his  naturalness  of  lan- 
guage, clearness  of  statement,  and  direct  address.  ^^ 

Not  much  may  be  said  of  his  power  of  delivery  of  a  ser- 
mon. Dr.  Vinton  said  his  great  oratorical  power  was  his 
voice,  but  there  was  often  much  hesitancy  of  speech  and  even 
stammering.  He  spoke  so  rapidly  that  sometimes  it  was  quite 
impossible  to  catch  his  meaning,  especially  if  the  auditor  was 
somewhat  distant  from  him.  Archdeacon  Farrar  asked  him 
to  speak  slower,  though  Dean  Stanley  thought  rapidity  was 


368  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

one  of  his  sources  of  power.  The  following  quotation  from 
an  address  before  a  school  of  oratory  gives  his  own  idea  of 
the  sources  of  expression  : 

"  I  have  no  theory  or  doctrine  regarding  expression,  and 
yet  I  must  speak  of  it  with  the  profoundest  respect.  First  in 
importance  comes  life,  —  the  very  fact  of  life  itself,  —  activity 
and  the  deed  done.  Then  follows  the  mind's  appropriation  of 
the  deed  done,  and  after  it  has  passed  into  thought  it  comes 
forth  again  in  the  utterances.  Expression  comes,  fulfills  the 
life  of  man  and  feels  all  life  perpetually  inspiring  it.  No  one 
has  a  right  to  study  expression  until  he  is  conscious  that  behind 
expression  lies  thought,  and  behind  thought,  deed  and  action. 
Nobody  can  truly  stand  as  an  utterer  before  the  world  unless 
he  is  profoundly  living  and  honestly  thinking." 

Perhaps  his  whole  power  as  a  speaker  may  be  summed  up 
in  the  one  word  "personality."  Any  preacher  who  can  present 
~such  a  personality,  even  though  his  words  come  in  the  halting 
speech  of  a  Martin  Luther  or  in  the  rapid,  torrentlike  rush 
of  words  of  a  Phillips  Brooks,  may  justly  be  termed  a  great 
speaker.  As  Professor  Brastow  of  Yale  University  ably  puts 
it :  "Any  man  who  would  know  better  what  it  is  to  be  a  help- 
ful, pastoral  preacher,  a  real  preacher,  full,  simple,  earnest, 
unconventional  preacher,  of  an  imaginative,  suggestive,  and 
ethical  mind,  who  cares  chiefly  to  make  the  truth  effective, 
who  is  bent  upon  getting  it  at  work  in  the  minds  and  hearts 
of  men,  who  would  fuse  and  fire  the  truth  with  the  energy  of 
a  manly  human  heart  and  soul,  may  well  give  himself  with 
diligence  to  Phillips  Brooks."  For  a  full  study  of  the  man 
we  direct  the  attention  of  the  student  to  Professor  A.  V.  G. 
Allen's  entrancing  volume,  "  The  Life  and  Letters  of  Phillips 
Brooks,"  and  for  a  study  of  the  method  of  his  message  no 
richer  yield  may  be  found  than  the  pages  of  his  own  sermons, 
lectures,  and  addresses. 


PHILLIPS   BROOKS  369 

A  SERMON  OF  GREETING 

Preached  in  Trinity  Church,  Boston,  Sunday,  September  23,  1883,  by 
Dr.  Brooks  the  day  after  his  arrival  from  a  year  abroad.  The  sermon 
was  based  on  the  text :  Even  as  the  testimony  of  Christ  was  confirmed 
in  you.    i  Corinthians,  1-6. 

I.    A  HOPEFUL  OUTLOOK 

My  dear  friends,  my  dear  people,  I  cannot  tell  you  with  what 
happy  thankfulness  to  God  for  all  his  mercies  I  stand  again  in 
this  familiar  place.  After  a  year  of  various  delightful  experiences 
—  I  hope  not  without  much  that  in  the  coming  years  may  be  in 
some  way  for  your  benefit  as  well  as  mine  —  I  see  again  these 
dear  and  well-known  walls ;  I  look  into  the  welcome  of  your  dear 
and  well-known  faces ;  I  greet  you  in  our  Master's  name,  I  greet 
you  in  the  memory  of  all  the  past^  which  comes  rising  up  like  a 
great  flood  about  me,  the  memory  of  all  the  years  of  happy  work 
together,  of  difficulties  met  and  solved,  of  the  common  study  of 
God's  word,  of  the  common  experience  of  God's  love,  of  sorrows 
and  of  joys,  in  the  midst  of  which  the  affection  of  minister  and 
people  for  each  other  has  ripened  and  grown  strong.  I  greet  you 
alsojn  the  name  of  the  future,  which  I  hope  looks  as  bright  and 
full  of  hope  to  you  this  morning  as  it  looks  to  me.  To-day  let  all 
misgivings  rest,  and  let  the  golden  prospect  of  years  and  years  of 
life  together,  and  of  ever-richening  work  for  God  and  fellow  man, 
stretch  out  before  us  and  lavish  its  temptation  on  our  eager  hearts. 
Lei_our.whQle_wQi:ship  of  this  morning  seem  but  an  utterance  of 
one  common  thankfulness  and  common  consecration  ;  and  solemnly, 
gladly,  with  hand  once  more  joined  in  hand,  let  us  go  forward  in 
the  thoughts  of  God^^ 

And  now,  in  this  first  sermon  to  which  I  have  so  long  looked 
forward,  what  shall  I  say  ?  Where  shall  I  try  to  lead  your  hearts 
in  this  first  of  the  many  half  hours  which  we  are  to  spend  together 
as  preacher  and  hearers  ?  I  do  not  know  where  I  can  better  turn 
than  to  the  Epistle  for  this  eighteenth  Sunday  after  Trinity,  which 


370  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

will  always  hereafter  be  remarkable  to  us  as  the  day  which  brought 
us  together  again  after  our  long  separation.  The  whole  passage 
from  which  these  words  are  taken  rings  with  St.  Paul's  delight  in 
his  disciples,  and  thankfulness  for  all  that  God  has  done  for  them. 
"  I  thank  my  God  always  on  your  behalf  for  the  grace  of  God 
which  is  given  you  by  Jesus  Christ ;  that  in  everything  ye  are  en- 
riched by  him,  in  all  utterance  and  in  all  knowledge."  How  like 
a  psalm  the  great  minister  sings  his  exultation  over  his  beloved 
church !  And  then  there  come  these  other  words,  which  seem  to 
gather  up  into  the  most  deliberate  and  thoughtful  statements  the 
real  ground  and  substance  of  his  delightful  interest  in  them : 
"  Even  as  the  testimony  of  Christ  was  confirmed  in  you."  Just 
think  what  those  words  mean !  Behind  all  other  joy  in  his  Corin- 
thians, behind  his  personal  affection  for  their  special  lives  and 
characters,  behind  his  satisfaction  in  their  best  prosperity,  behind 
his  grateful  recollection  of  their  kindness  to  himself,  behind  his 
honor  for  the  intelligence  and  faithfulness  and  sacrifice  with  which 
they  had  accepted  the  truth  which  he  had  taught  them,  and  had 
tried  to  live  the  Christian  life  —  behind  all  this  there  lay  one  great 
supreme  delight.  In  them  he  saw  confirmed  and  illustrated  the 
testimony  of  his  master,  Christ.  All  that  he  knew  his  Lord  to  be 
became  at  once  more  sure  and  more  clear  to  him  as  he  read  the 
lives  of  these  disciples,  as  they  lay  before  him  flooded  with  the 
bright  light  of  their  mutual  love. 

The  words  at  once  suggest  an  illustration  of  their  meaning, 
which  is  familiar  to  every  devout  and  thoughtful  man  who  has 
traveled  much  back  and  forth  upon  the  wonderful,  beautiful  earth 
where  God  has  set  our  lives.  1 1  praise  the  world  for  many  things  : 
kingdom  beyond  kingdom,  city  beyond  city,  race  beyond  race, 
there  opens  everywhere  the  fascinating  mystery  of  human  life. 
Man,  with  his  endless  appeal  to  man,  piercing  through  foreign 
dress  and  language,  strange  traditions,  uncouth  social  habits, 
uncongenial  forms  of  government,  unapprehended  forms  of  faith, 
finds  out  our  hearts  and  claims  them,  and  makes  our  paths  from 
land  to  land  a  constant  interest  and  joy.    And  the  great  physical 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS  3/1 

earth  in  which  this  human  life  is  set  is  worthy  of  its  jewel.  The 
ocean  rolls  in  its  majesty;  the  great  plains  open  their  richness 
from  horizon  to  horizon ;  the  snow  peaks  lift  their  silver  mystery 
of  light  against  the  sky ;  the  great"  woods  sing  with  the  songs  of 
streams.  How  beautiful  it  is  !  And  yet,  without  losing  one  element 
of  all  this  beauty,  without  robbing  eye  or  ear  or  mind  of  one  of 
these  spontaneous  delights,  how  instantly  poorer  this  earth  of  ours 
would  be  to  the  devout  and  thoughtful  man  if  it  meant  nothing 
more,  if  everywhere  it  did  not  bring  him  even  additional  testimony 
and  revelation/)f  that  supreme  intelligence  and  lov^  which  had  first 
made  itself  known  to  him  in  the  experiences  of  his  own  soul ! 

The  words  of  Paul  and  the  illustration  of  his  words,  which  I 
have  just  been  giving,  may  furnish  two  natural  divisions  of  what  I 
want  to  say  to  you  to-day.  He  was  talking  to  Christian  disciples, 
and  it  was  peculiarly  and  specially  over  the  exhibition  of  the  power 
of  Christ  in  those  who  were  declaredly  his  disciples  that  the  apostle 
was  grateful  and  exultant.  But  besides  this,  Paul  shows  us  more 
than  once  that  he  conceived  of  Christ  as  a  universal  power,  so 
present  everywhere  and  always  in  the  world  that  no  part  of  the 
world,  not  even  that  which  was  most  ignorant  or  most  contemp- 
tuous about  Him,  could  help  feeling  His  influence  and  becoming 
a  witness  of  His  power.  To  Paul,  then,  any  savage  barbarism  or 
any  heathen  civilization,  as  well  as  his  Christian  church  in  Corinth, 
would  have  found  its  meaning,  its  explanation,  its  key  and  clue,  in 
Christ.  He  would  have  stood  among  the  palaces  of  Rome  or 
among  the  wigwams  of  America  and  learned  from  them  some- 
thing of  his  Master.  To  them  as  well  as  to  the  streets  of  Corinth, 
though  with  different  sense  and  tone,  but  with  no  less  sincerity 
and  interest,  he  would  have  said,  ''  The  testimony  of  Christ  is  con- 
firmed for  me  in  you." 

The  ''  testimony  of  Christ."  Must  we  not  ask  ourselves  first, 
however,  whether  we  understand  exactly  the  meaning  of  these 
words?  Do  they  refer  to  the  doctrine  which  Christ  taught,  the 
truths  which  He  left  burning  in  His  Gospels  for  the  world's  un- 
dying light  ?    No  doubt  they  do.    But  we  should  litde  understand 


372  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

the  richness  of  the  Divine  Revelation  in  the  Son  of  Man  if  we  let 
ourselves  think  for  a  moment  that  any  word  which  He  ever  spoke 
or  could  have  spoken,  exhausted  or  could  exhaust  that  revelation 
of  Himself  which  the  loving  Father  of  mankind  intended  to  give 
the  world  through  Him.  Christ  spoke  the  words  of  God,  and  that 
was  much.  Christ  was  the  word  of  God,  and  that  was  vastly 
more ;  I  beg  you  always  to  remember  that.  It  is  no  doctrine  — 
not  even  the  doctrine  of  the  incarnation;  it  is  the  incarnate 
One  Himself  that  is  the  real  light  of  the  world.  Let  us  get 
hold  of  that  idea,  as  there  does  indeed  seem  reason,  thank  God, 
to  believe  that  men  are  getting  hold  of  it.  Let  us  get  hold  of  this 
idea,  and  then  we  are  really  ready  for  the  great  truth  of  St.  Paul, 
that  the  world  and  the  Church  get  their  true  clearness  and  beauty 
as  confirmation  of  the  testimony  of  Christ.  The  testimony  of  Christ 
is  Christ.  A  hundred  golden  words  of  His  leap  to  our  memory, 
but  not  one  of  them  can  unlock  all  our  problems  and  scatter 
all  our  darkness.  Not  one  of  them  —  simply  because  it  is  only  a 
word  —  can  marshal  and  harmonize  at  once  around  itself  all  this 
discordant  world.  But  He,  the  incarnate  God  and  the  perfect 
Man,  setting  in  living  presence  the  holiness  and  love  of  God  and 
the  capacity  of  man  as  a  true,  visible  fact  here  in  the  world  —  He, 
if  He  be  really  this,  may  well  become  the  center  of  all  history  and 
life,  and  all  the  world  and  all  the  Church  may  find  their  highest 
glory  and  beauty,  their  key  and  clue,  in  being  confirmations  of 
the  testimony  of  Him. 

II.   THE  INCARNATION  OF  CHRIST 

Let  us  turn  first  to  the  world  —  the  great  world  as  a  whole, 
Christians  and  non-Christians  all  together  —  and  see  how  in  the  in- 
carnation of  Christ  it  finds  its  true  interpretation  and  illumination. 

It  is  hard  to  speak  of  the  world  at  large  and  not  speak  first 
of  all  of  that  which  is,  I  think,  upon  the  whole,  the  most  im- 
pressive thing  to  one  who  travels  much  from  land  to  land,  and 
takes  in  on  the  spot  the  record  of  humanity  in  every  age.    I  mean 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS  373 

the  fact  that,  through  all  lands  and  in  all  ages,  there  have  stood 
forth  men  who  showed  the  spiritual  possibilities  of  men  in  some 
supreme  and  beautiful  exhibition.  Where  is  the  country  whose 
history  is  so  dead  that  it  has  not  some  such  men  to  show  ?  Where 
is  the  tyranny  of  a  false  creed  so  mighty  that  it  has  been  able  to 
hold  these  star  lives  in  its  chains  and  forbid  their  soaring  up  into 
the  dark  sky  ?  In  medieval  Christianity,  in  gross,  material,  com- 
mercial, modern  life,  in  brutal  Hindu  superstition,  in  the  conceit 
of  narrow  learning,  where  has  there  ever  been  such  all-powerful, 
earthward  gravitation  that  the  mountains  have  not  risen  through 
it  here  and  there  into  the  heavens  ?  The  saint,  the  soul  unselfish 
with  perception  of  the  higher  purposes  of  its  own  life  and  aspira- 
tion after  God,  is  everywhere.  Can  I  see  this,  can  I  recognize 
this  as  one  of  the  great  facts  of  the  world,  and  yet  see  no  con- 
nection between  it  and  the  great  apparition  once  upon  the  earth 
of  the  supremest  Son  of  God,  of  one  who  by  His  very  being  made 
it  absolutely  certain  that  God,  however  far  away  He  seemed,  was 
always  very  near  to  man ;  that  man,  however  gross  and  bad  he 
seemed,  was  always  capable  of  receiving  and  containing  God  ? 
The  truth  we  learn  from  every  highest  study  of  humanity  is  that 
the  highest  and  divinest  men  are  the  most  truly  men ;  not  the 
mean  and  the  base,  but  the  noble  and  the  pure ;  they  are  the  men 
whom  we  have  a  right  to  take  as  the  true  revelation  of  what  man, 
in  his  essential  nature,  really  is.  And  that  same  truth  applied  to 
the  old  question  as  to  what  is  the  relation  between  the  highest 
human  lives  and  the  life  of  the  incarnate  Christ,  gives  us  the  right 
to  think  that  they  are  to  be  interpreted  by  Him ;  that  in  them  we 
have  simply  the  sunlight  before  the  sunrise,  the  mountain  tops  of 
humanity,  on  which  has  struck  first  of  all  that  truth  which  is  the 
essential  truth  of  human  nature  —  the  truth  that  man  belongs  to 
God  and  is  divine.  By  and  by  comes  the  incarnation,  and  that  is 
just  the  rising  of  the  sun,  whose  light  has  been  already  glorious 
upon  the  hills,  even  while  it  itself  was  yet  unseen.  When  from 
the  hilltops  downward  to  the  lower  regions  creeps  the  sunlight,  it 
finds  out  ever  deeper  zones  of  human  nature  and  enlightens  them. 


374  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

It  brings  out  the  godlike  in  the  nooks  and  corners  of  humanity. 
All  this  comes  afterwards ;  but  the  first  testimony  of  that  which 
Christ  afterwards  made  certain  was  in  the  fact  which  fascinated 
men  while  it  bewildered  them,  that  everywhere  and  always  there 
have  been  men  who  could  not  be  satisfied  except  in  finding  out  and 
claiming  God,  men  whose  souls  told  them  they  belonged  to  Him. 
Oh,  my  dear  friends,  it  is  not  for  us  Christians  to  ignore  the  spiritual 
glories  which  humanity  has  reached  in  regions  where  our  blessed 
Christ  has  been  least  known  ;  rather  to  rejoice  in  and  proclaim  them, 
for  they  are  confirmations  of  the  testimony  of  Him,  unquenchable, 
indubitable  witnesses  of  that  without  which  He  could  not  have  been, 
the  oneness,  the  essential  oneness,  of  man's  life  with  God. 

And  if  I  talk  thus  of  the  spiritual  glory  of  mankind,  how 
shall  I  speak  of  its  sin  and  misery  ?  Oh,  my  dear  friends,  one 
does  not  need  to  travel  in  order  to  find  it  out.  Our  own  streets, 
our  own  hearts  are  full  of  it ;  and  yet  there  does  come  with  long- 
continued  travel  a  reiteration,  an  accumulation,  an  overwhelming 
certainty  of  the  sinfulness  of  man  that  is  most  awfully  impressive. 
The  terrible  disgrace  and  wretchedness  of  human  life !  City  be- 
yond city  has  its  tale  to  tell.  You  cross  new  seas  and  find  the 
darkness  waiting  for  you  on  the  other  side.  You  lift  some  veil  of 
old-world  beauty  and  there  it  lurks  behind,  the  hideous  specter 
of  the  lust,  the  cruelty,  the  brutishness,  the  selfishness,  the  awful 
wickedness  of  man.  Sometimes  one  finds  himself  simply  standing 
in  dismay  before  it.  All  faith  in  man  seems  for  a  moment  to  be 
perished ;  all  hope  for  man  withers  as  if  it  were  the  silliest  and 
wildest  dream.  And  what  then  ?  Is  there  any  sort  of  confirmation 
of  the  testimony  of  Christ  here  ?  Or,  is  there  not }  If  the  splen- 
did possibilities  of  man  in  every  exhibition  of  them  showed  the 
chance  of  a  redeeming  incarnation,  does  not  the  pervading  wicked- 
ness of  man,  with  no  less  mighty  emphasis,  declare  its  need }  We 
are  so  built,  thanks  to  the  grace  of  Him  who  built  us,  that  our 
greatest  and  deepest  needs  take  voices  and  prophesy  their  own 
supplies.  Not  merely  the  partial  lightness  of  the  twilight,  but  the 
very  blackness  of  the  midnight  darkness  tells  beforehand  of  the 


PHILLIPS   BROOKS  375 

coming  light.  The  cry  of  realized  want  is  always  undersounded 
and  made  pathetic  by  an  almost  unconscious  tone  of  hope.  And 
so,  in  the  very  dismay  of  which  I  spoke,  when  it  comes  over  one 
as  he  stands  in  the  presence  of  some  record  of  how  bad  man  has 
been,  or  some  sight  of  how  bad  man  is,  there  opens  at  the  very 
heart  of  it  all,  the  brighter  for  the  darkness  at  whose  heart  it 
burns,  a  strange,  divine  assurance  that  this  badness  is  not  man, 
but  is  an  awful  slavery  which  has  fallen  upon  man,  and  that 
somewhere,  some  time,  somehow,  the  true  man  must  come  and 
bring  a  rescue,  and  that  when  He  comes  He  will  come  with  a 
supreme  witness  that  He,  the  true  man,  belongs  to  God  —  that  it  is 
not  merely  man,  but  God,  who  comes  and  brings  His  strength. 
It  is  to  a  blind  conviction  such  as  this  that  the  missionary  of  the 
incarnation  everywhere  appeals,  and  he  does  not  appeal  in  vain. 
Whatever  men  have  written,  it  is  not  hard  for  man  —  conscious, 
really  conscious  of  sin  —  to  believe  in  the  promise  of  redemption. 
His  sin,  in  subtle  ways,  has  told  him  of  the  redemption  which  was 
coming.  When  it  comes  he  says :  "It  must  have  come.  God 
could  not  have  left  me  to  perish."  So  it  is  that  the  world's  sin 
becomes  its  "  confirmation  of  the  testimony  of  Christ." 

The  believer  in  the  incarnation  goes  everywhere,  and  his  belief 
in  the  immediate  presence  of  God  and  the  vast  capacity  of  man  — 
and  to  believe  in  the  incarnation  is  to  believe  in  both  of  these  — 
fills  everything  with  light.  The  glory  and  the  tragedy  of  human 
life  are  both  intelligible.  The  tumult  of  history  becomes  some- 
thing more  than  the  aimless  biting  and  clawing  of  captive  wild 
beasts  caged  together  in  a  net.  Behind  everything  is  the  God 
whose  children  we  are,  and  who  could  not  let  us  live  without  tell- 
ing us  He  was  our  Father.  Over  all,  making  life  pathetic  and 
full  at  once  of  penitence  and  hope,  the  Christ, 

Whose  pale  face  on  the  cross  sees  only  this, 
After  the  watching  of  these  thousand  years. 

Before  all,  as  the  one  great  promise,  the  one  only  hope,  the 
coming  of  that  same  Christ  in  the  clouds  with  power  and  great 
glory ;   humanity  redeemed    and   fulfilled   by  the   occupation    of 


3/6  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

Divinity,  made  at  last  completely  Master  of  a  world  entirely 
obedient  to  its  best  life.  Pitiable  enough  the  man  who  travels 
through  the  world  and  sees  no  such  vision,  hears  no  such  voice  of 
a  creation  groaning  and  travailing  for  the  manifestation  of  the 
son  of  God  and  is  not  moved  continually  to  lift  up  his  prayer, 
"  Even  so,  come.  Lord  Jesus  !  " 


III.  CONFIRMATION  OF  CHRIST'S  TESTIMONY 

It  is  time  to  turn  from  the  great  world  and  think  of  the  Christian 
disciple,  to  whom  St.  Paul's  words  were  first  of  all  addressed.  His 
is  the  life  which  is  trying  to  be,  what,  in  the  great  view  of  it  which 
we  have  just  been  taking,  the  whole  world  must  finally  become. 
And  so  in  him,  in  the  Christian  disciple,  we  ought  to  see  some 
livelier  struggle  toward  the  expression  of  the  incarnation,  toward 
the  confirmation  of  the  testimony  of  Christ.  As  I  say  this  I 
cannot  but  remember  how  the  whole  story  of  Jesus,  even  in  its 
details,  has  often  seemed  to  be  only  the  parable  of  the  life  of  every 
struggling  servant  of  Jesus  who  has  walked  in  His  steps.  The  ser- 
vant, like  the  Master,  has  seemed  to  pass  out  of  the  childhood  of 
Bethlehem  into  the  profession  of  the  baptism,  the  wrestling  of  the 
desert,  the  glory  of  transfiguration,  and  the  harsh  contacts  with 
a  misconceiving  world,  full  always  of  a  growing  peace  of  deeper 
understanding  of  the  Father,  until  at  last,  through  the  agony  of 
some  Gethsemane  and  the  complete  sacrifice  of  its  appointed 
Calvary,  it  has  come  out  fully  into  the  brightness  and  the  peace 
of  the  resurrection  life.  When,  a  few  weeks  ago,  I  sat  through  a 
long,  bright  summer's  day  and  saw  the  peasants  of  a  village  in  the 
Tyrol  represent  in  their  devout  and  simple  way  the  old,  ever  new 
story  of  the  sufferings  and  crucifixion  and  triumph  of  the  Lord, 
one  of  the  strongest  impressions  on  my  own  mind  all  the  time 
was  this :  that  not  alone  in  old  Jerusalem  had  those  scenes  taken 
place ;  that  it  was  the  story  not  merely  of  the  Master,  but  also  of 
every  faithful  and  suffering  servant  of  the  Master,  which  was  being 
played ;  that  that  patient  figure,  passing  on  deeper  and  deeper,  as 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS  377 

hour  followed  hour,  His  passion  unveiling  with  every  act  some 
greater  greatness  of  His  nature,  full  of  exhaustless  pity  and  un- 
failing courage,  now  shaming  His  contemptuous  judge  with  His 
calm  dignity,  now  falling  under  the  burden  of  His  cross,  now  for- 
getting Himself  as  He  turned  to  bless  His  fellow  sufferers,  and 
at  last  standing  triumphant,  with  His  foot  upon  the  conquered 
tomb,  was  not  merely  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  but  was  at  the  same  time 
every  follower  of  the  Nazarene  who  anywhere  had  caught  His 
spirit  and  repeated  the  essential  words  of  His  life. 

But  it  is  not  only  when  we  thus  make  the  story  of  Christ's  life 
the  parable  of  our  own  life  that  we  discover  the  confirmation  of 
His  testimony  in  ourselves.  When  in  all  the  deeper  experiences  of 
our  souls  we  find  that  there  is  no  solution  of  our  problems  and  no 
escape  from  our  distress  except  in  what  the  incarnation  meant  and 
means  forever,  then  it  is  that  our  poor  pathetic  histories  get  their 
great  dignity  as  confirmation  of  all  He  said  and  did.  When  over- 
come by  your  own  sin,  nothing  but  Christ  can  make  you  know  that 
you  are  so  thoroughly  God's,  and  God  is  so  completely  yours  that 
no  sin  can  separate  you  from  Him  or  forbid  you  the  privilege  of 
coming  on  your  knees  to  Him,  to  repent  and  confess,  and  ask  Him 
to  forgive  and  be  forgiven ;  when  full  of  self-distress  and  self- 
contempt,  nothing  but  the  incarnate  Christ  can  keep  you  from 
despairing  of  humanity  and  show  you  how  grand  and  pure  it  is  in 
its  essential  nature,  how  capable  of  being  filled  with  God  and 
shining  with  His  glory ;  when  thus,  in  the  strength  of  the  incarna- 
tion, you  gather  up  your  helplessness  and  come  full  of  trust  and 
hope  up  to  the  door  where  He  who  made  you  stands  tirelessly 
inviting  you  to  enter  in  and  become  what  He  made  you  to  be,  then, 
then  it  is  that  the  transcendent  wonder  of  God  manifest  in  Christ 
has  translated  itself  into  our  human  speech,  and  men  may  read  in 
you,  the  poor  saved  sinner,  what  your  Saviour  is.  Is  there  a  glory 
for  a  human  life  like  that  ?  Can  you  conceive  a  humble  splendor 
so  complete  as  the  great  light  which  clothes  the  soul  that  has  thus 
in  pure  submission  made  itself  transparent,  so  that  through  it  Christ 
has  shone  ?   Among  the  new  experiences,  the  deepest  of  them 


378  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

unknown  in  their  fullness  save  to  you  and  God,  which  must  have 
come  to  you,  my  friends,  in  these  months  of  our  year  of  separation 
—  may  I  not  hope,  may  I  not  rejoice  to  know,  that  to  some  of  you 
has  come  this  crown  of  all  experiences,  this  glad  and  complete 
submission  of  your  converted  life  to  Christ,  in  which  you  have 
become  a  new  confirmation  of  the  testimony  of  His  grace  and 
power.  I  thank  God  with  you  for  this,  which  is  indeed  the  salvation 
of  your  soul. 

I  must  not  seem  to  be  pouring  out  on  you  on  this  first  morning 
the  flood  of  preaching  which  has  been  accumulating  through  a 
whole  year  of  silence.  But  I  have  wanted  to  ask  you  to  think  with 
me  of  how  the  key  of  the  world's  life,  and  of  every  Christian's 
experience,  lies  deep  in  that  incarnation  which  it  is  the  privilege  of 
the  Christian  pulpit  to  proclaim  and  preach.  If  what  I  have  been 
saying  to  you  is  true,  then  that  great  manifestation  of  God  must  be 
preaching  itself  forever.  All  history,  all  life,  must  be  struggling  to 
confirm  the  testimony  of  Christ.  I  have  known  well  how  faithfully 
the  gospel  of  the  incarnation  has  been  preached  to  you  from  this 
pulpit  since  I  have  been  away.  With  ever  deeper  satisfaction  I 
have  known  that  God  was  preaching  it  to  each  of  you  in  silent 
sermons,  out  of  all  that  He  has  sent  or  has  allowed  to  come  into 
your  lives.  You  have  had  troubles  and  anxieties,  sickness,  pains ; 
some  of  you,  sorrows  which  have  torn  your  hearts  and  homes 
asunder,  and  changed  your  lives  forever.  Have  they  not  shown 
you  something .?  Has  not  God,  through  them,  shown  you  something 
of  how  near  He  is  to  you  and  how  He  loves  you,  and  how  capable 
your  human  natures  are  of  containing  ever  more  and  more  of  Him? 
You  have  had  delights,  joys ;  happiness  has  burst  on  some  of  you 
with  a  great  gush  of  sunshine,  and  opened  upon  others  with  that 
calm  and  gradual  glow  which  is  even  richer  and  more  blessed. 
Have  you  not  learned  something  in  most  personal  and  private 
consciousness  of  what  the  world  meant  when  the  tidings  ran  abroad 
from  Bethlehem :  "  Behold,  your  King  is  come.  The  tabernacle 
of  God  is  with  His  children,  men  " .?  The  children  have  turned 
another  page  in  the  delightful  book  of  opening  life.    The  active 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS  379 

men  and  women  have  seen  what  seemed  the  full-blown  flower  open 
some  deeper  heart  of  richness.  The  thinker  has  learned  some  new 
lessons  of  the  infiniteness  of  truth.  The  old  have  found  age,  grown 
ever  more  familiar,  declare  itself  in  unexpected  ways  their  friend, 
and  seen  its  hard  face  brighten  with  the  mysterious  promises  of 
things  beyond,  which  it  cannot  explain,  but  whose  reality  and 
richness  it  will  not  let  them  doubt.  We  are  all  growing  older.  Oh, 
how  dreary  and  wretched  it  would  be  if  those  words  did  not  mean 
that  through  Christ,  in  Christ,  we  are  always  gaining  more  knowl- 
edge of  what  God  is  and  what  we  may  be ! 

As  I  look  around  upon  your  faces,  I  cannot  help  asking  myself 
in  hope  whether  it  must  not  be  that  some  of  you  are  ready  for  the 
gospel  now,  for  whom,  in  the  years  heretofore,  it  has  seemed  to 
have  no  voice.  Has  not  some  new  need  opened  your  eyes  ?  Has 
not  some  new  mercy  touched  your  hearts  ?  Has  not  the  very  steady 
flow  and  pressure  of  life  brought  you  to  some  new  ground,  where 
you  are  ready  to  know  that  life  is  not  life  without  the  faith  of  Him 
who  is  the  revelation  of  God  and  of  ourselves  ?  I  will  believe  it,  and 
believing  it,  I  will  take  up  again,  enthusiastically,  the  preaching  of  that 
Christ  who  is  always  preaching  Himself  in  wonderful,  and  powerful, 
and  tender  ways  even  to  hearts  that  seem  to  hear  Him  least. 

To  those  who  do  hear  Him  and  receive  Him  there  comes  a 
peace  and  strength,  a  patience  to  bear,  an  energy  to  work,  which 
is  to  the  soul  itself  a  perpetual  surprise  and  joy,  a  hope  unquench- 
able, a  love  for  and  a  belief  in  fellow  man  that  nothing  can 
disturb,  and  around  all,  as  the  great  element  of  all,  a  certainty  of 
God's  encircling  love  to  us  which  conquers  sin  and  welcomes 
sorrow,  and  laughs  at  death  and  already  lives  in  immortality.  What 
shall  we  say  of  it  that  is  not  in  the  words  of  Christ's  beloved 
disciple,  who  knows  it  all  so  well :  "  To  as  many  as  receive  Him, 
to  them  gives  He  power  to  become  the  sons  of  God." 

Let  us  say  then  to  one  another,  "  Sursum  corda  !  Lift  up  your 
hearts  !  "  Let  us  answer  back  to  one  another,  "  We  do  lift  them  up 
unto  the  Lord  " ;  and  so  let  us  go  forward  together  into  whatever 
new  life  He  has  set  before  us. 


HENRY  WOODFIN   GRADY 


To  present  the  best  representative  of  Southern  oratory  since 
the  ante-bellum  days,  when  Southern  supremacy  in  legislative 
halls  depended  so  largely  upon  the  power  of  public  speech, 

we  must  call  the  name 
of  Henry  Woodfin  Grady 
(1 850-1 889)  of  Georgia. 
His  was  a  striking  person- 
ality whose  voice,  face,  and 
figure  seemed  aglow  with 
expression,  ar^d-Whose  spiiiL 
teemed  with  optimism,  high 
motives,  and  love  of  coun- 
try. Such  a  spirit  could 
not  dwell  among  men  with- 
out exerting  its  uplifting 
influence,  nor  depart  from 
our  midst  without  leaving 
its  abiding  stamp  upon  our 
character  and  ideals.  His 
success  in  advocacy  of  the 
claims  of  his  section  of  our 
common  country  and  the  establishment  of  a  better  under- 
standing between  the  North  and  South  after  the  estrange- 
ment of  bitter  civil  war  must  stand  as  one  of  the  triumphs 
of  modern  oratory. 

Grady_states  that  he  was  a  speaker  by  inheritance,  but  he 
was  also  a  diligent  student  of  the  methods  of  the  world's 
greatest  orators  and  debaters  ;    and  his  own  bent  of  mind 

380 


HENRY  WOODFIN   GRADY  38 1 

turned  all  acquisition  of  thou^t  into  the  channels  of  public 
speech.  As  a  student  in  college  it  is  said  that  even  his  class- 
room recitations  were  spoken  in  good  speech  form.  This  habit 
of  mind  was  manifest  even  in  his  editorial  work.  One  has 
but  to  read  his  editorials  in  the  Rome  (Georgia)  Commercial 
or  in  the  Atlanta  Constitution  to  note  the  language  of  expres- 
sive speech.  The  thought  of  an  audience  was  ever  present 
with  him,  and  even  the  words  that  fell  from  his  facile  pen 
suggested  to  the  mind  of  the  reader  the  image,  accents,  and 
cadences  of  the  orator. 

At  the  age  of  eighteen  Grady  was  graduated  from  the 
University  of  Georgia  and  he  subsequently  took  a  postgraduate 
course  at  the  University  of  Virginia.  Hisjbjpgrapher,  Joel 
Chandler  Harris,  tells  us  that  he  was  accounted  one  of  the 
best  debaters  in  college,  was  very  active  in  literary-society 
work  and  his  chief  ambition  was  to  represent  his  college  on 
the  commencement  occasion  as  "  society  orator."  His  chief 
object  in  his  postgraduate  course  was  to  perfect  himself  in 
oratory.  His  choice  of  studies,  so  far  as  college  elective  privi- 
leges would  allow,  was  for  those  subjects  which  contribute 
most  largely  to  preparation  for  public  service. 

And  the  immediate  necessity  for  such  service  was  at  hand. 
The  South  with  her  problems  was  his  thought,  and  her  welfare 
his  passion.  As  a  boy  he  had  witnessed  some  of  the  san- 
guinary scenes  of  sectional  warfare  and  suffered  the  sacrifice 
of  a  father  upon  the  altar  of  his  country.  As  a  student  of 
social  and  economic  conditions  following  the  Civil  War  he 
sought  a  solution  of  the  many  problems  of  the  South,  and  his 
optimism  grasped  the  plan  of  her  betterment.  By  common 
consent  he  became  her  champion,  and  all  of  his  recorded 
speeches,  whether  delivered  on  his  native  soil  or  in  the  great 
cities  of  the  North,  carry  the  refrain  of  Southern  motives, 
problems,  and  hopes. 


382  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

Grady's  style  of  oratory  was  classical,  fluent,  and  ornate. 
Cold  criticism  has  charged  him  with  excessive  ornateness,  but 
a  close  study  of  his  speeches  hardly  sustains  the  charge.  He 
had  the  boldness  to  state  solid  facts  in  beautiful,  rhetorical 
language  and  great  fundamental  principles  in  striking  simile 
or  metaphor,  but  his  sequence  of  thought  and  trend  of  logic 
were  irresistible.  Where  other  speakers  have  failed  in  this 
method,  Grady  had  the  ability  to  follow  it  without  "vain  repe- 
tition" or  tiresome  verbosity.  He  was  never  eloquent  for  the 
sake  of  eloquence  but  for  the  better  enforcement  of  his 
thought.  An  analysis  of  his  speeches  shows  that  it  was  an 
eloquence  of  facts  that  bristled  like  polished  bayonets  in  the 
morning  sunlight,  yet  the  beauty  of  the  flashing  sheen  did 
not  escape  the  delighted  eye.  Witness  the  striking  array  of 
facts  and  figures  together  with  the  prophetic  sweep  of  broad 
principles  that  characterize  his  speech  to  the  farmers  in 
Elberton,  Georgia ;  his  great  prohibition  speech  in  Atlanta ;  or 
his  crowning  oration  at  the  Merchants'  Association  in  Boston. 
His  style  was  not  more  ornate  than  that  of  Wendell  Phillips, 
but  there  was  greater  wealth  of  feeling  and  joy  of  optimism 
than  fell  from  the  lips  of  the  great  orator  of  emancipation. 
His  patriotic  utterances  sweep  into  the  majestic  currents  of 
Daniel  Webster  at  his  best,  but  his  flowers  of  rhetoric  are 
more  varied  and  beautiful  than  those  of  the  great  interpreter 
of  the  Constitution.  Like  Lincoln,  he  was  a  master  of  humor 
and  anecdote  and  never  failed  to  catch  the  crowd  and  chain 
their  attention.  Through  all  his  ornateness  there  was  never 
a  flower  but  left  the  impress  of  its  fragrance,  or  a  bloom  of 
promise  that  did  not  yield  an  ample  fruitage. 

It  was  fortunate  that  Grady  could  command  by  nature  and 
cultivation  a  delivery  that  corresponded  to  his  mode  of  thought 
and  style  of  language.  It  is  frequent  that  men  have  the  power 
to  write  great  discourses  but  lack  the  power  to  deliver  them 


HENRY  WOODFIN  GRADY  383 

effectively.  Ingersoll's  greatest  power  lay  in  his  brilliant 
rhetoric.  When  Henry  Clay  spoke  in  the  national  Senate  the 
gallerie^were  crowded,  but  many  of  Webster's  great  sena- 
torial utterances  were  delivered  to  scanty  audiences.  Grady 
had  both  creative  and  expressive  gifts  in  proper  propor- 
tion, with  that  instantaneous  coordination  of  the  two  that  / 
marks  the  brilliant  extempore  speaker.  By  profession  he  wasf 
a  journalist,  but  he  was  a  great  speaker  because  his  elocution 
equaled  his  pen. 

While  Grady  was  a  master  of  extempOTe  speech,  his  method 
of  preparation  for  a  great  occasion  like  that  which  called  him 
to  New  York  in  1886,  was  to  write  out  in  full  form  and  lan- 
guage the  discourse  he  was  to  deliver,  and  without  a  note  or 
scrap  of  paper  his  prodigious  memory,  together  with  his  won- 
derful powers  of  extemporization,  would  yield  the  speech  in 
such  perfect  form  and  language  that  the  most  skilled  stenog- 
rapher might  catch  it  verbatim  and  the  newspaper  print  it 
without  revision.  Many  of  his  speeches  were  wholly  extem- 
porCj^such  as  the  address  before  the  farmers  of  Georgia  and 
the  speech  before  the  Bay  City  Club  in  Boston,  and_yet  Jhg_ 
thought  and  language  almost  equal  his  most  formal  efforts. 

While  Grady  won  an  enviable  reputation  as  a  debater  and  ( 
orator  in  his  college  and  home  circles,  he  did  not  spring  into  | 
national  fame  until  he  delivered  his  oration  on  the  New  South  ( 
at  a  banquet  of  the  New  England  Society  in  New  York  City, 
December  21,  1886.  He  awoke  the  next  morning  to  find  him- 
self famous  and  the  press  of  the  country  singing  his  praises.  He 
made  addresses  on  the  South  and  her  problems  at  the  Georgia 
Exposition  at  Augusta  and  the  Texas  State  Fair  at  Dallas  in 
1887,  and  in  the  same  year  made  a  great  speech  in  his  home 
city,  Atlanta,  advocating  state  prohibition  of  the  liquor  traffic. 
In  1889  he  delivered  the  commencement  address  before  the 
Washington  and  Jefferson  literary  societies  of  the  University 


384  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

of  Virginia,  making  a  wonderful  argument  against  the  central- 
ization of  power  in  government  and  finance  and  pointing  out 
the  national  perils  of  such  a  regime  ;  and  in  that  year  he  made 
a  remarkable  extempore  address  to  the  farmers  of  his  native 
state  against  the  dangers  of  concentration  of  population  in  our 
towns  and  cities.  In  Boston  on  December  13  of  the  same 
year,  he  made  his  greatest  oration  on  "The  Race  Problem  in  the 
South"  at  a  banquet  of  the  Boston  Merchants'  Association, 
which  will  ever  stand  the  equal  of  Webster's  Bunker  Hill  Mon- 
ument orations,  Phillips's  Toussaint  L'Ouverture,  Beecher's 
speech  at  Manchester,  England,  and  Bryan's  "  Cross  of  Gold  " 
address  at  the  Chicago  national  convention.  Twenty-four 
hours  later  we  catch  an  echo  of  that  great  oration  in  his  last 
public  utterance,  made  before  the  Bay  City  Club  of  Boston, 
in  which  he  imparts  some  of  the  most  beautiful  lessons  of 
patriotism  and  national  brotherhood  drawn  from  his  visit 
that  day  to  the  historic  Plymouth  Rock.  He  had  contracted 
a  cold  that  brought  on  pneumonia  which  caused  his  death 
ten  days  later  —  a  calamity  which  brought  sorrow  to  our 
(  entire  nation. 

While  any  one  of  Grady's  orations  would  be  suitable  for 
the  purposes  of  this  volume,  it  seems  appropriate  to  give  por- 
tions of  the  New  York  speech,  which  first  brought  him  into 
national  prominence,  and  his  Boston  banquet  speech,  which 
marks  the  zenith  of  his  glory  as  the.  incomparable  orator  of^ 
our  sunny  Southland. 


HENRY  WOODFIN  GRADY  385 


THE  NEW  SOUTH 


From  an  address  given  at  a  banquet  in  New  York,  December  21,  1886, 
upon  invitation  of  the  New  England  Society  of  that  city. 

I.  THE  RETURNING  ARMIES 

Mr.  President  and  gentlemen,  Let  me  express  to  you  my 
appreciation  of  the  kindness  by  which  I  am  permitted  to  address 
you.  I  make  this  abrupt  acknowledgment  advisedly,  for  I  feel  that 
if,  when  I  raise  my  provincial  voice  in  this  ancient  and  august 
presence,  it  could  find  courage  for  no  more  than  the  opening 
sentence,  it  would  be  well  if  in  that  sentence  I  had  met  in  a  rough 
sense  my  obligation  as  a  guest,  and  had  perished,  so  to  speak,  with 
courtesy  on  my  lips  and  grace  in  my  heart. 

Let  me  say  that  I  appreciate  the  significance  of  being  the  first 
Southerner  to  speak  at  this  board,  which  bears  the  substance,  if  it 
surpasses  the  semblance,  of  original  New  England  hospitality,  and 
honors  the  sentiment  that  in  turn  honors  you,  but  in  which  my 
personality  is  lost  and  the  compliment  to  my  people  made  plain. 

My  friends.  Dr.  Talmage  has  told  you  that  the  typical  American 
has  yet  to  come.  Let  me  tell  you  that  he  has  already  come.  Great 
types,  like  valuable  plants,  are  slow  to  flower  and  fruit.  But  from 
the  union  of  these  colonists,  Puritans  and  Cavaliers,  from  the 
straightening  of  their  purposes  and  the  crossing  of  their  blood, 
slowly  perfecting  through  a  century,  came  he  who  stands  as  the  first 
typical  American,  the  first  who  comprehended  within  himself  all 
the  strength  and  gentleness,  all  the  majesty  and  grace,  of  this 
republic  —  Abraham  Lincoln.  He  was  the  sum  of  Puritan  and 
Cavalier,  for  in  his  ardent  nature  were  fused  the  virtues  of  both, 
and  in  the  depths  of  his  great  soul  the  faults  of  both  were  lost. 
He  was  greater  than  Puritan,  greater  than  Cavalier,  in  that  he  was 
American,  and  that  in  his  honest  form  were  first  gathered  the  vast 
and  thrilling  forces  of  his  ideal  government,  charging  it  with  such 
tremendous  meaning  and  elevating  it  above  humg;i  suffering,  that 
martyrdom,  though  infamously  aimed,  came  as  a  fitting  crown  to 


386  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

a  life  consecrated  from  the  cradle  to  human  liberty.  Let  us,  each 
cherishing  the  traditions  and  honoring  his  fathers,  build  with  rever- 
ent hands  to  the  type  of  this  simple  but  sublime  life,  in  which  all 
types  are  honored,  and  in  our  common  glory  as  Americans  there 
will  be  plenty  and  to  spare  for  your  forefathers  and  for  mine. 

Dr.  Talmage  has  drawn  for  you,  with  a  master's  hand,  the 
picture  of  your  returning  armies.  He  has  told  you  how,  in  the 
pomp  and  circumstance  of  war,  they  came  back  to  you,  marching 
with  proud  and  victorious  tread,  reading  their  glory  in  a  nation's 
eyes  !  Will  you  bear  with  me  while  I  tell  you  of  another  army  that 
sought  its  home  at  the  close  of  the  late  war.?  —  an  army  that 
marched  home  in  defeat  and  not  in  victory,  in  pathos  and  not  in 
splendor,  but  in  glory  that  equaled  yours,  and  to  hearts  as  loving 
as  ever  welcomed  heroes  home  !  Let  me  picture  to  you  the  footsore 
Confederate  soldier,  as,  buttoning  up  in  his  faded  gray  jacket  the 
parole  which  was  to  bear  testimony  to  his  children  of  his  fidelity 
and  faith,  he  turned  his  face  southward  from  Appomattox  in  April, 
1865.  Think  of  him  as,  ragged,  half-starved,  heavy-hearted,  en- 
feebled by  want  and  wounds,  having  fought  to  exhaustion,  he 
surrenders  his  gun,  wrings  the  hands  of  his  comrades  in  silence, 
and  lifting  his  tear-stained  and  pallid  face  for  the  last  time  to  the 
graves  that  dot  old  Virginia  hills,  pulls  his  gray  cap  over  his  brow 
and  begins  the  slow  and  painful  journey. 

What  does  he  find  —  let  me  ask  you  who  went  to  your  homes 
eager  to  find,  in  the  welcome  you  had  justly  earned,  full  payment 
for  four  years'  sacrifice  —  what  does  he  find  when,  having  followed 
the  battle-stained  cross  against  overwhelming  odds,  dreading  death 
not  half  so  much  as  surrender,  he  reaches  the  home  he  left  so 
prosperous  and  beautiful  ?  He  finds  his  house  in  ruins,  his  farm 
devastated,  his  slaves  free,  his  stock  killed,  his  barns  empty,  his 
trade  destroyed,  his  money  worthless,  his  social  system,  feudal  in 
its  magnificence,  swept  away,  his  people  without  law  or  legal  status, 
his  comrades  slain,  and  the  burdens  of  others  heavy  on  his  shoul- 
ders. Crushed  by  defeat,  his  very  traditions  are  gone ;  without 
money,  credit,  employment,  material,  or  training ;   and,  besides  all 


HENRY  WOODFIN   GRADY  387 

this,  he  is  confronted  with  the  gravest  problem  that  ever  met  human 
intelligence  —  the  establishment  of  a  status  for  the  vast  body  of  his 
liberated  slaves. 

What  does  he  do  —  this  hero  in  gray  with  a  heart  of  gold  ?  Does 
he  sit  down  in  sullenness  and  despair?  Not  for  a  day.  Surely 
God,  who  had  stripped  him  of  his  prosperity,  inspired  him  in  his 
adversity.  As  ruin  was  never  before  so  overwhelming,  never  was 
restoration  swifter.  The  soldier  stepped  from  the  trenches  into  the 
furrow,  horses  that  had  charged  federal  guns  marched  before  the 
plow,  and  fields  that  ran  red  with  human  blood  in  April  were  green 
with  the  harvest  in  June ;  women  reared  in  luxury  cut  up  their 
dresses  and  made  breeches  for  their  husbands,  and,  with  a  patience 
and  heroism  that  fit  women  always  as  a  garment,  gave  their  hands 
to  work.  There  was  little  bitterness  in  all  this.  Cheerfulness  and 
frankness  prevailed. 

But  what  is  the  sum  of  our  work  ?  We  have  found  out  that  in 
the  summing  up  the  free  negro  counts  more  than  he  did  as  a  slave. 
We  have  planted  the  schoolhouse  on  the  hilltop  and  made  it  free 
to  white  and  black.  We  have  sown  towns  and  cities  in  the  place  of 
theories,  and  put  business  above  politics.  We  have  challenged  your 
spinners  in  Massachusetts  and  your  iron  makers  in  Pennsylvania. 
We  have  learned  that  the  four  hundred  million  dollars  annually 
received  from  our  cotton  crop  will  make  us  rich  when  the  supplies 
that  make  it  are  home  raised.  We  have  reduced  the  commercial 
rate  of  interest  from  24  to  6  per  cent,  and  are  floating  4  per  cent 
bonds.  We  have  learned  that  one  Northern  immigrant  is  worth  fifty 
foreigners,  and  have  smoothed  the  path  to  Southward,  wiped  out 
the  place  where  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  used  to  be,  and  hung  out 
the  latchstring  to  you  and  yours. 

We  have  reached  the  point  that  marks  perfect  harmony  in  every 
household,  when  the  husband  confesses  that  the  pies  which  his 
wife  cooks  are  as  good  as  those  his  mother  used  to  bake ;  and  we 
admit  that  the  sun  shines  as  brightly  and  the  moon  as  softly  as  it 
did  before  the  war.  We  have  established  thrift  in  city  and  country. 
We  have  fallen  in  love  with  work.    We  have  restored  comfort  to 


388  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

homes  from  which  culture  and  elegance  never  departed.  We  have 
let  economy  take  root  and  spread  among  us  as  rank  as  the  crab 
grass  which  springs  from  Sherman's  cavalry  camps,  until  we  are 
ready  to  lay  odds  on  the  Georgia  Yankee  as  he  manufactures  relics 
of  the  battlefield  in  a  one-story  shanty  and  squeezes  pure  olive  oil 
out  of  his  cottonseed,  against  any  down-easter  that  ever  swapped 
wooden  nutmegs  for  flannel  sausage  in  the  valleys  of  Vermont. 
Above  all,  we  know  that  we  have  achieved  in  these  "  piping  times 
of  peace  "  a  fuller  independence  for  the  South  than  that  which  our 
fathers  sought  to  win  in  the  forum  by  their  eloquence  or  compel  in 
the  field  by  their  swords. 

It  is  a  rare  privilege,  sir,  to  have  had  part,  however  humble,  in 
this  work.  Never  was  nobler  duty  confided  to  human  hands  than 
the  uplifting  and  upbuilding  of  the  prostrate  and  bleeding  South 
—  misguided,  perhaps,  but  beautiful  in  her  suffering,  and  honest, 
brave,  and  generous  alwayi.  In  the  record  of  her  social,  industrial, 
and  political  lustration  we  await  with  confidence  the  verdict  of  the 
world.   Have  we  kept  faith  with  you  ?   In  the  fullest  sense,  yes. 

II.    A  UNITED  NATION 

When  Lee  surrendered,  the  South  became,  and  has  since  been, 
loyal  to  the  Union.  We  fought  hard  and  in  perfect  frankness  accept 
as  final  the  arbitrament  of  the  sword  to  which  we  had  appealed.  The 
South  found  her  jewel  in  the  toad's  head  of  defeat.  The  shackles 
that  had  held  her  in  narrow  limitations  fell  forever  when  the  shack- 
les of  the  negro  slave  were  broken.  Under  the  old  re'gime  the 
negroes  were  slaves  to  the  South ;  the  South  was  a  slave  to  the 
system.  The  old  plantation,  with  its  simple  police  regulations  and 
feudal  habit,  was  the  only  type  possible  under  slavery.  Thus  was 
gathered  in  the  hands  of  a  splendid  and  chivalric  oligarchy  the 
substance  that  should  have  been  diffused  among  the  people,  as 
the  rich  blood,  under  certain  artificial  conditions,  is  gathered  at  the 
heart,  filling  that  with  affluent  rapture,  but  leaving  the  body  chill 
and  colorless. 


HENRY  WOODFIN   GRADY  389 

The  old  South  rested  everything  on  slavery  and  agriculture,  un- 
conscious that  these  could  neither  give  nor  maintain  healthy  growth. 
The  new  South  presents  a  perfect  democracy,  the  oligarchs  leading 
in  the  popular  movement ;  a  social  system  compact  and  closely 
knitted,  less  splendid  on  the  surface,  but  stronger  at  the  corej;  a 
hundred  farms  for  every  plantation,  fifty  homes  for  every  palace ; 
and  a  diversified  industry  that  meets  the  complex  needs  of  this 
complex  age. 

The  new  South  is  enamored  of  her  new  work.  Her  soul  is 
stirred  with  the  breath  of  a  new  life.  The  light  of  a  grander  day 
is  falling  fair  on  her  face.  She  is  thrilling  with  the  conscious- 
ness of  growing  power  and  prosperity.  As  she  stands  upright, 
full-statured  and  equal  among  the  people  of  the  earth,  breath- 
ing the  keen  air  and  looking  out  upon  the  expanded  horizon, 
she  understands  that  her  emancipation  came  because,  through  the 
inscrutable  wisdom  of  God,  hfer  hone*  purpose  was  crossed  and 
her  brave  armies  were  beaten. 

This  is  said  in  no  spirit  of  timeserving  or  apology.  The  South 
has  nothing  for  which  to  apologize.  She  believes  that  the  late 
struggle  between  the  states  was  war  and  not  rebellion,  revolution 
and  not  conspiracy,  and  that  her  convictions  were  as  honest  as 
yours.  I  should  be  unjust  to  the  dauntless  spirit  of  the  South  and 
to  my  own  convictions  if  I  did  not  make  this  plain  in  this  presence. 
The  South  has  nothing  to  take  back. 

In  my  native  town  of  Athens  is  a  monument  that  crowns  its 
central  hill  —  a  plain,  white  shaft.  Deep  cut  into  its  shining  side 
is  a  name  dear  to  me  above  the  names  of  men  —  that  of  a  brave 
and  simple  man  who  died  in  brave  and  simple  faith.  Not  for  all 
the  glories  of  New  England,  from  Plymouth  Rock  all  the\way, 
would  I  exchange  the  heritage  he  left  me  in  his  soldier's  death. 
To  the  foot  of  that  shaft  I  shall  send  my  children's  children  to 
reverence  him  who  ennobled  their  name  with  his  heroic  blood. 
But,  sir,  speaking  from  the  shadow  of  that  memory  which  I  honor 
as  I  do  nothing  else  on  earth,  I  say  that  the  cause  in  which  he 
suffered  and  for  which  he  gave  his  life  was  adjudged  by  a  higher 


390  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

and  fuller  wisdom  than  his  or  mine,  and  I  am  glad  that  the  omnis- 
cient God  held  the  balance  of  battle  in  his  almighty  handj  and 
that  human  slavery  was  swept  forever  from  American  soil  —  that 
the  American  Union  was  saved  from  the  wreck  of  war. 

This  message,  Mr.  President,  comes  to  you  from  consecrated 
ground.  Every  foot  of  soil  about  the  city  in  which  1  live  is  sacred 
as  a  battle  ground  of  the  republic.  Every  hill  that  invests  it  is 
hallowed  to  you  by  the  blood  of  your  brothers  who  died  for  your 
victory,  and  doubly  hallowed  to  us  by  the  blood  of  those  who  died 
hopeless,  but  undaunted,  in  defeat  —  sacred  soil  to  all  of  us,  rich 
with  memories  that  make  us  purer  and  stronger  and  better,  silent 
but  stanch  witness  in  its  red  desolation  of  the  matchless  valor  of 
American  hearts  and  the  deathless  glory  of  American  arms,  speak- 
ing an  eloquent  witness  in  its  white  peace  and  prosperity  to  the 
indissoluble  union  of  American  states  and  the  imperishable  brother- 
hood of  the  American  people. 

Now  what  answer  has  New  England  to  this  message }  Will 
she  permit  the  prejudice  of  war  to  remain  in  the  hearts  of  the 
conquerors,  when  it  has  died  in  the  hearts  of  the  conquered  ?  Will 
she  transmit  this  prejudice  to  the  next  generation,  that  in  their 
hearts,  which  never  felt  the  generous  ardor  of  conflict,  it  may  per- 
petuate itself?  Will  she  withhold,  save  in  strained  courtesy,  the 
hand  which  straight  from  his  soldier's  heart  Grant  offered  to  Lee 
at  Appomattox  ?  Will  she  make  the  vision  of  a  restored  and  happy 
people,  which  gathered  above  the  couch  of  your  dying  captain, 
filling  his  heart  with  grace,  touching  his  lips  with  praise,  and 
glorifying  his  path  to  the  grave  —  will  she  make  this  vision,  on 
which  the  last  sigh  of  his  expiring  soul  breathed  a  benediction,  a 
cheat  and  a  delusion  ? 

If  she  does,  the  South,  never  abject  in  asking  for  comradeship, 
must  accept  with  dignity  its  refusal ;  but  if  she  does  not  refuse  to 
accept  in  frankness  and  sincerity  this  message  of  good  will  and 
friendship,  then  will  the  prophecy  of  Webster,  delivered  in  this 
v^y  society  forty  years  ago  amid  tremendous  applause,  be  verified 
in  its  fullest  sense,  when  he  said :  "  Standing  hand  to  hand  and 


HENRY  WOODFIN  GRADY  391 

clasping  hands,  we  should  remain  united  as  we  have  been  for 
sixty  years,  citizens  of  the  same  country,  members  of  the  same 
government,  united,  all  united  now  and  united  forever." 


THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH 

From  an  address  given  at  a  banquet  of  the  Boston  Merchants'  Associa- 
tion in  Boston,  December  14,  1889. 

I.  RACIAL  CONDITIONS 

Mr.  President,  bidden  by  your  invitation  to  a  discussion  of  the 
race  problem  —  forbidden  by  occasion  to  make  a  political  speech  — 
I  appreciate,  in  trying  to  reconcile  orders  with  propriety,  the  predic- 
ament of  the  little  maid,  who,  bidden  to  learn  to  swim,  was  yet 
adjured,  "  Now  go,  my  darling  daughter,  hang  your  clothes  on  a 
hickory  limb,  and  don't  go  near  the  water." 

The  stoutest  apostle  of  the  church,  they  say,  is  the  missionary, 
and  the  missionary,  wherever  he  unfurls  his  flag,  will  never  find 
himself  in  deeper  need  of  unction  and  address  than  I,  bidden 
to-night  to  plant  the  standard  of  a  Southern  democrat  in  Boston's 
banquet  hall,  and  discuss  the  problem  of  the  races  in  the  home  of 
Phillips  and  Sumner.  But,  Mr.  President,  if  a  purpose  to  speak 
in  perfect  frankness  and  sincerity  ;  if  earnest  understanding  of  the 
vast  interests  involved ;  if  a  consecrating  sense  of  what  disaster 
may  follow  further  misunderstanding  and  estrangement  —  if  these 
may  be  counted  to  steady  undisciplined  speech  and  to  strengthen 
an  untried  arm,  then,  sir,  I  find  the  courage  to  proceed. 

Happy  am  I  that  this  mission  has  brought  my  feet  at  last  to 
press  New  England's  historic  soil,  and  my  eyes  to  the  knowledge 
of  her  beauty  and  her  thrift.  Here,  within  touch  of  Plymouth 
Rock  and  Bunker  Hill,  where  Webster  thundered  and  Longfellow 
sang,  Emerson  thought  and  Channing  preached  —  here  in  the 
cradle  of  American  letters,  and  almost  of  American  liberty,  I  hasten 
to  make  the  obeisance  that  every  American  owes  New  England 
when  first  he  stands  uncovered  in  her  mighty  presence.    Strange 


392  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

apparition !  This  stern  and  unique  figure,  carved  from  the  ocean 
and  the  wilderness,  its  majesty  kindling  and  growing  amid  the 
storms  of  winters  and  of  wars,  until  at  last  the  gloom  was  broken, 
its  beauty  disclosed  in  the  sunshine,  and  the  heroic  workers  rested 
at  its  base,  while  startled  kings  and  emperors  gazed  and  marveled 
that  from  the  rude  touch  of  this  handful,  cast  on  a  bleak  and 
unknown  shore,  should  have  come  the  embodied  genius  of  human 
government  and  the  perfected  model  of  human  liberty!  God 
bless  the  memory  of  those  immortal  workers  and  prosper  the  for- 
tunes of  their  living  sons  and  perpetuate  the  inspirations  of  their 
handiwork  ! 

Two  years  ago,  sir,  I  spoke  some  words  in  New  York  that 
caught  the  attention  of  the  North.  As  I  stand  here  to  reiterate,  as 
I  have  done  everywhere,  every  word  I  then  uttered,  —  to  declare 
that  the  sentiments  I  then  avowed  were  universally  approved  in 
the  South,  —  I  realize  that  the  confidence  begotten  by  that  speech 
is  largely  responsible  for  my  presence  here  to-night.  I  should  dis- 
honor myself  if  I  betrayed  that  confidence  by  uttering  one  insincere 
word  or  by  withholding  one  essential  element  of  the  truth. 

Far  to  the  south,  Mr.  President,  separated  from  this  section  by 
a  line,  once  defined  in  irrepressible  difference,  once  traced  in  fratri- 
cidal blood,  and  now,  thank  God,  but  a  vanishing  shadow,  lies  the 
fairest  and  richest  domain  of  this  earth.  It  is  the  home  of  a  brave 
and  hospitable  people.  There  is  centered  all  that  can  please  or 
prosper  humankind.  A  perfect  climate  above  a  fertile  soil  yields  to 
the  husbandman  every  product  of  the  temperate  zone.  There  by 
night  the  cotton  whitens  beneath  the  stars,  and  by  day  the  wheat 
locks  the  sunshine  in  its  bearded  sheaf.  In  the  same  field  the  clover 
steals  the  fragrance  of  the  wind,  and  the  tobacco  catches  the  quick 
aroma  of  the  rains.  There  are  mountains  stored  with  exhaustless 
treasures;  forests,  vast  and  primeval,  and  rivers  that,  tumbling 
or  loitering,  run  wanton  to  the  sea.  Of  the  three  essential  items 
of  all  industries  —  cotton,  iron,  and  wood  —  that  region  has  easy 
control ;  in  cotton,  a  fixed  monopoly;  in  iron,  proven  supremacy;  in 
timber,  the  reserve  supply  of  the  republic.    From  this  assured  and 


HENRY  WOODFIN  GRADY  393 

permanent  advantage,  against  which  artificial  conditions  cannot 
much  longer  prevail,  has  grown  an  amazing  system  of  industries. 
Not  maintained  by  human  contrivance  of  tariff  or  capital,  afar  off 
from  the  fullest  and  cheapest  source  of  supply,  but  resting  in 
divine  assurance,  within  touch  of  field  and  mine  and  forest,  —  not 
set  amid  costly  farms  from  which  competition  has  driven  the  farmer 
in  despair,  but  amid  cheap  and  sunny  lands,  rich  with  agriculture, 
to  which  neither  season  nor  soil  has  set  a  limit,  —  this  system  of 
industries  is  mounting  to  a  splendor  that  shall  dazzle  and  illumine 
the  world. 

That,  sir,  is  the  picture  and  the  promise  of  my  home  —  a  land 
better  and  fairer  than  I  have  told  you,  and  yet  but  fit  setting,  in 
its  material  excellence,  for  the  loyal  and  gentle  quality  of  its  citi- 
zenship. Against  that,  sir,  we  have  New  England,  recruiting  the 
republic  from  its  sturdy  loins,  shaking  from  its  overcrowded  hives 
new  swarms  of  workers,  and  touching  this  land  all  over  with  its 
energy  and  its  courage.  And  yet,  while  in  the  El  Dorado  of  which 
I  have  told  you  but  15  per  cent  of  its  lands  are  cultivated,  its 
mines  scarcely  touched,  and  its  population  so  scant  that,  were  it 
set  equidistant,  the  sound  of  the  human  voice  could  not  be  heard" 
from  Virginia  to  Texas ;  while  on  the  threshold  of  nearly  every 
house  in  New  England  stands  a  son,  seeking  with  troubled  eyes 
some  new  land  to  which  to  carry  his  modest  patrimony,  the  strange 
fact  remains  that  in  1880  the  South  had  fewer  Northern-born 
citizens  than  she  had  in  1870,  fewer  in  '70  than  in  '60.  Why  is 
this  ?  Why  is  it,  sir,  though  the  sectional  line  be  now  but  a  mist 
that  the  breath  may  dispel,  fewer  men  of  the  North  have  crossed 
it  over  to  the  South  than  when  it  was  crimson  with  the  best  blood 
of  the  republic,  or  even  when  the  slaveholder  stood  guard  every 
inch  of  the  way  .-* 

There  can  be  but  one  answer.  It  is  the  very  problem  we  are 
now  to  consider.  The  key  that  opens  that  problem  will  unlock  to 
the  world  the  fairer  half  of  this  republic  and  free  the  halted 
feet  of  thousands  whose  eyes  are  already  kindled  with  its  beauty. 
Better  than  this,  it  will  open  the  hearts  of  brothers  for  thirty  years 


394  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

estranged,  and  clasp  in  lasting  comradeship  a  million  hands  now 
withheld  in  doubt.  Nothing,  sir,  but  this  problem,  and  the  suspi- 
cions it  breeds,  hinders  a  clear  understanding  and  a  perfect  union. 
Nothing  else  stands  between  us  and  such  love  as  bound  Georgia 
and  Massachusetts  at  Valley  Forge  and  Yorktown,  chastened  by 
the  sacrifices  at  Manassas  and  Gettysburg,  and  illumined  with  the 
coming  of  better  work  and  a  nobler  destiny  than  was  ever  wrought 
with  the  sword  or  sought  at  the  cannon's  mouth. 

If  this  does  not  invite  your  patient  hearing  to-night,  hear  one 
thing  more.  My  people,  your  brothers  in  the  South,  —  brothers  in 
blood,  in  destiny,  in  all  that  is  best  in  our  past  and  future,  —  are  so 
beset  with  this  problem  that  their  very  existence  depends  upon  its 
right  solution.  Nor  are  they  wholly  to  blame  for  its  presence.  The 
slave  ships  of  the  republic  sailed  from  your  ports,  the  slaves 
worked  in  our  fields.  You  will  not  defend  the  traffic,  nor  I  the  in- 
stitution. But  I  do  hereby  declare  that  in  its  wise  and  humane 
administration,  in  lifting  the  slave  to  heights  of  which  he  had  not 
dreamed  in  his  savage  home,  and  giving  him  a  happiness  he  has 
not  yet  found  in  freedom,  our  fathers  left  their  sons  a  saving  and 
excellent  heritage.  In  the  storm  of  war  this  institution  was  lost.  I 
thank  God  as  heartily  as  you  do  that  human  slavery  is  gone  forever 
from  the  American  soil. 

But  the  freed  man  remains  ;  with  him  a  problem  without  prece- 
dent or  parallel.  Note  its  appalling  conditions.  Two  utterly  dis- 
similar races  on  the  same  soil,  with  equal  political  and  civil  rights, 
almost  equal  in  numbers,  but  terribly  unequal  in  intelligence  and 
responsibility,  each  pledged  against  fusion,  one  for  a  century  in 
servitude  to  the  other  and  freed  at  last  by  a  desolating  war,  the 
experiment  sought  by  neither  but  approached  by  both  with  doubt 
—  these  are  the  conditions.  Under  these,  adverse  at  every  point, 
we  are  required  to  carry  these  two  races  in  peace  and  honor  to  the 
end.  Never,  sir,  has  such  a  task  been  given  to  mortal  stewardship. 
Never  before  in  this  republic  has  the  white  race  divided  on  the 
rights  of  an  alien  race.  The  red  man  was  cut  down  as  a  weed, 
because  he  hindered  the  way  of  the  American  citizen.    The  yellow 


HENRY  WOODFIN   GRADY  395 

man  was  shut  out  of  this  republic  because  he  is  an  alien  and  an 
inferior.  The  red  man  was  owner  of  the  land,  the  yellow  man 
highly  civilized  and  assimilable,  but  they  hindered  both  sections  — 
and  are  gone ! 

But  the  black  man,  affecting  but  one  section,  is  clothed  with 
every  privilege  of  government  and  pinned  to  the  soil,  and  my  people 
commanded  to  make  good,  at  any  hazard  and  at  any  cost,  his  full 
and  equal  heirship  of  American  privilege  and  prosperity.  It  matters 
not  that  wherever  the  whites  and  blacks  have  touched,  in  any  era 
or  any  clime,  there  has  been  irreconcilable  violence.  It  matters  not 
that  no  two  races,  however  similar,  have  lived  anywhere  at  any  time 
on  the  same  soil  with  equal  rights  in  peace.  In  spite  of  these  things 
we  are  commanded  to  make  good  this  change  of  American  policy 
which  has  not  perhaps  changed  American  prejudice,  to  make  certain 
here  what  has  elsewhere  been  impossible  between  whites  and 
blacks,  and  to  reverse,  under  the  very  worst  conditions,  the  uni- 
versal verdict  of  racial  history.  And  driven,  sir,  to  this  superhuman 
task  with  an  impatience  that  brooks  no  delay,  a  rigor  that  accepts 
no  excuse,  and  a  suspicion  that  discourages  frankness  and  sincerity, 
we  do  not  shrink  from  this  trial.  It  is  so  interwoven  with  our 
industrial  fabric  that  we  cannot  disentangle  it  if  we  would  —  so 
bound  up  in  our  honorable  obligation  to  the  world  that  we  would 
not  if  we  could.  Can  we  solve  it  ?  The  God  who  gave  it  into  our 
hands,  he  alone  can  know.  But  this  the  weakest  and  wisest  of  us 
do  know;  we  cannot  solve  it  with  less  than  your  tolerant  and 
patient  sympathy,  with  less  than  the  knowledge  that  the  blood  that 
runs  in  your  veins  is  our  blood,  and  that  when  we  have  done  our 
best,  whether  the  issue  be  lost  or  won,  we  shall  feel  your  strong 
arms  about  us  and  hear  the  beating  of  your  approving  hearts. 

The  resolute,  clear-headed,  broad-minded  men  of  the  South,  the 
men  whose  genius  made  glorious  every  page  of  the  first  seventy 
years  of  American  history,  whose  courage  and  fortitude  you  tested 
in  five  years  of  the  fiercest  war,  whose  energy  has  made  bricks 
without  straw  and  spread  splendor  amid  the  ashes  of  their  war- 
wasted  homes  —  these  men  wear  this  problem  in  their  hearts  and 


396  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

their  brains  by  day  and  by  night.  They  realize,  as  you  cannot, 
what  this  problem  means  —  what  they  owe  to  this  kindly  and 
dependent  race,  the  measure  of  their  debt  to  the  world  in  whose 
despite  they  defended  and  maintained  slavery.  And  though  their 
feet  are  hindered  in  its  undergrowth  and  their  march  encumbered 
with  its  burdens,  they  have  lost  neither  the  patience  from  which 
comes  clearness  nor  the  faith  from  which  comes  courage.  Nor,  sir, 
when  in  passionate  moments  is  disclosed  to  them  that  vague  and 
awful  shadow,  with  its  lurid  abysses  and  its  crimson  stains,  —  into 
which  I  pray  God  they  may  never  go,  —  are  they  struck  with  more 
of  apprehension  than  is  needed  to  complete  their  consecration  I 

II.  THE  ISSUE 

Such  is  the  temper  of  my  people.  But  what  of  the  problem 
itself  ?  Mr.  President,  we  need  not  go  one  step  further  unless  you 
concede  right  here  that  the  people  I  speak  for  are  as  honest,  as 
sensible,  and  as  just  as  your  people,  seeking  as  earnestly  as  you 
would  in  their  place,  rightly  to  solve  the  problem  that  touches  them 
at  every  vital  point.  If  you  insist  that  they  are  ruffians,  blindly 
striving  with  bludgeon  and  shotgun  to  plunder  and  oppress  a  race, 
then  I  shall  sacrifice  my  self-respect  and  tax  your  patience  in  vain. 
But  admit  that  they  are  men  of  common  sense  and  common 
honesty,  wisely  modifying  an  environment  they  cannot  wholly 
disregard,  guiding  and  controlling  as  best  they  can  the  vicious  and 
irresponsible  of  either  race,  compensating  error  with  frankness  and 
retrieving  in  patience  what  they  lose  in  passion,  and  conscious  all 
the  time  that  wrong  means  ruin  —  admit  this,  and  we  may  reach 
an  understanding  to-night. 

I  bespeak  your  patience,  while  with  vigorous  plainness  of  speech, 
seeking  your  judgment  rather  than  your  applause,  I  proceed  step 
by  step.  We  give  to  the  world  this  year  a  crop  of  7,500,000  bales 
of  cotton,  worth  $450,000,000,  and  its  cash  equivalent  in  grain, 
grasses,  and  fruit.  This  enormous  crop  could  not  have  come  from 
the  hands  of  sullen  and  discontented  labor.    It  comes  from  peaceful 


HENRY  WOODFIN  GRADY  397 

fields,  in  which  laughter  and  gossip  rise  above  the  hum  of  industry 
and  contentment  runs  with  the  singing  plow. 

In  Georgia  we  added  last  year  $250,000  to  the  school  fund, 
making  a  total  of  more  than  $1,000,000  —  and  this  in  the  face  of 
prejudice  not  yet  conquered ;  of  the  fact  that  the  whites  are 
assessed  for  $368,000,000,  the  blacks  for  $10,000,000,  and  yet 
49  per  cent  of  the  beneficiaries  are  black  children ;  and  in  the 
doubt  of  many  wise  men  if  education  helps,  or  can  help,  our 
problem.  Charleston,  with  her  taxable  values  cut  half  in  two  since 
i860,  pays  more  in  proportion  for  public  schools  than  Boston. 
Although  it  is  easier  to  give  much  out  of  much  than  little  out  of 
little,  the  South  with  one  seventh  of  the  taxable  property  of  the 
country,  with  relatively  larger  debt,  having  received  only  one  twelfth 
as  much  public  land,  and  having  back  of  its  tax  books  none  of  the 
half  billion  of  bonds  that  enrich  the  North ,  and  though  it  pays 
annually  $26,000,000  to  your  section  as  pensions;  yet  gives 
nearly  one  sixth  of  the  public-school  fund.  The  South  since  1865 
has  spent  $122,000,000  in  education,  and  this  year  is  pledged  to 
$37,000,000  for  state  and  city  schools,  although  the  blacks,  paying 
one  thirtieth  of  the  taxes,  get  nearly  one  half  of  the  fund. 

What  is  the  testimony  of  the  courts  ?  In  penal  legislation  we 
have  steadily  reduced  felonies  to  misdemeanors,  and  have  led  the 
world  in  mitigating  punishment  for  crime,  that  we  might  save,  as 
far  as  possible,  this  dependent  race  from  its  own  weakness.  In  our 
penitentiary  record  60  per  cent  of  the  prosecutors  are  negroes, 
and  in  every  court  the  negro  criminal  strikes  the  colored  juror, 
that  white  men  may  judge  his  case.  In  the  North  one  negro  in 
every  466  is  in  jail  —  in  the  South  only  one  in  1865.  In  the 
North  the  percentage  of  negro  prisoners  is  six  times  as  great  as 
native  whites  —  in  the  South  only  four  times  as  great.  If  prejudice 
wrongs  him  in  Southern  courts,  the  record  shows  it  to  be  deeper 
in  Northern  courts. 

I  assert  here,  and  a  bar  as  intelligent  and  upright  as  the  bar  of 
Massachusetts  will  solemnly  indorse  my  assertion,  that  in  the  South- 
ern courts,  from  highest  to  lowest,  pleading  for  life,  liberty,  or 


398  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

property,  the  negro  has  distinct  advantage  because  he  is  a  negro, 
apt  to  be  overreached,  oppressed  —  and  that  this  advantage  reaches 
from  the  juror  in  making  his  verdict  to  the  judge  in  measuring  his 
sentence.  Nov^,  Mr.  President,  can  it  be  seriously  maintained  that 
we  are  terrorizing  the  people  from  whose  willing  hands  come  every 
year  $1,000,000,000  of  farm  crops  ?  or  have  robbed  a  people  who, 
twenty-five  years  from  unrewarded  slavery,  have  amassed  in  one 
state  $20,000,000  of  property.?  or  that  we  intend  to  oppress  the 
people  we  are  arming  every  day }  or  deceive  them  when  we  are 
educating  them  to  the  utmost  limit  of  our  ability  ?  or  outlaw  them 
when  we  work  side  by  side  with  them  ?  or  reenslave  them  under 
legal  forms  when  for  their  benefit  we  have  even  imprudently 
narrowed  the  limit  of  felonies  and  mitigated  the  severity  of  law  ? 
My  fellow  countryman,  as  you  yourself  may  sometimes  have  to 
appeal  to  the  bar  of  human  judgment  for  justice  and  for  right, 
give  to  my  people  to-night  the  fair  and  unanswerable  conclusion 
of  these  incontestable  facts. 

When  will  the  black  cast  a  free  ballot  ?  When  ignorance  any- 
where is  not  dominated  by  the  will  of  the  intelligent;  when  the 
laborer  anywhere  casts  a  vote  unhindered  by  his  boss ;  when  the 
vote  of  the  poor  anywhere  is  not  influenced  by  the  power  of  the  rich  ; 
when  the  strong  and  the  steadfast  do  not  everywhere  control  the  suf- 
frage of  the  weak  and  shiftless  —  then  and  not  till  then  will  the  ballot 
of  the  negro  be  free.  The  white  people  of  the  South  are  banded, 
Mr.  President,  not  in  prejudice  against  the  blacks,  not  in  sectional 
estrangement,  not  in  the  hope  of  political  dominion,  but  in  a  deep 
and  abiding  necessity.  Here  is  this  vast,  ignorant,  and  purchasable 
vote  —  clannish,  credulous,  impulsive,  and  passionate  —  tempting 
every  art  of  the  demagogue  but  insensible  to  the  appeal  of  the 
statesman.  Wrongly  started,  in  that  it  was  led  into  alienation  from 
its  neighbor  and  taught  to  rely  on  the  protection  of  an  outside 
force,  it  cannot  be  merged  and  lost  in  the  two  great  parties  through 
logical  currents,  for  it  lacks  political  conviction  and  even  that 
information  on  which  conviction  must  be  based.  It  must  remain  a 
faction  —  strong  enough  in  every   community  to  control  on  the 


HENRY  WOODFIN   GRADY  399 

slightest  division  of  the  whites.  Under  that  division  it  becomes  the 
prey  of  the  cunning  and  unscrupulous  of  both  parties.  Its  credu- 
lity is  imposed  on,  its  patience  inflamed,  its  cupidity  tempted,  its 
impulses  misdirected,  and  even  its  superstition  made  to  play  its 
part  in  a  campaign  in  which  every  interest  of  society  is  jeopardized 
and  every  approach  to  the  ballot  box  debauched.  It  is  against  such 
campaigns  as  this  —  the  folly  and  the  bitterness  and  the  danger  of 
which  every  Southern  community  has  drunk  deeply  —  that  the  white 
people  of  the  South  are  banded  together.  Just  as  you  in  Massa- 
chusetts would  be  banded  if  three  hundred  thousand  black  men 
—  not  one  in  a  hundred  able  to  read  his  ballot  —  banded  in  a 
race  instinct,  holding  against  you  the  memory  of  a  century  of 
slavery,  taught  by  your  late  conquerors  to  distrust  and  oppose 
you,  had  already  travestied  legislation  from  your  statehouse,  and 
in  every  species  of  folly  or  villainy  had  wasted  your  substance  and 
exhausted  your  credit. 

The  negro  vote  can  never  control  in  the  South,  and  it  would  be 
well  if  partisans  in  the  North  would  understand  this.  I  have  seen 
the  white  people  of  a  state  set  about  by  black  hosts  until  their 
fate  seemed  sealed.  But,  sir,  some  brave  man,  banding  them 
together,  would  rise,  as  Elisha  rose  in  beleaguered  Samaria, 
and  touching  their  eyes  with  faith,  bid  them  look  abroad  to  see 
the  very  air  "  filled  with  the  chariots  of  Israel  and  the  horsemen 
thereof."  If  there  is  any  human  force  that  cannot  be  withstood,  it 
is  the  power  of  the  banded  intelligence  and  responsibility  of  a  free 
community.  Against  it,  numbers  and  corruption  cannot  prevail. 
It  cannot  be  forbidden  in  the  law  or  divorced  in  force.  It  is  the 
inalienable  right  of  every  free  community,  and  the  just  and  right- 
eous safeguard  against  an  ignorant  or  corrupt  suffrage.  It  is 
on  this,  sir,  that  we  rely  in  the  South ;  not  the  cowardly  menace 
of  mask  or  shotgun,  but  the  peaceful  majesty  of  intelligence 
and  responsibility,  massed  and  unified  for  the  protection  of  its 
homes  and  the  preservation  of  its  liberty.  That,  sir,  is  our  reliance 
and  our  hope,  and  against  it  all  the  powers  of  the  earth  shall 
not  prevail. 


400  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  ELOQUENCE 

Meantime  we  treat  the  negro  fairly,  measuring  to  him  justice  in 
the  fullness  the  strong  should  give  to  the  weak,  and  leading  him  in 
the  steadfast  ways  of  citizenship  that  he  may  no  longer  be  the  prey 
of  the  unscrupulous  and  the  sport  of  the  thoughtless.  We  open  to 
him  every  pursuit  in  which  he  can  prosper,  and  seek  to  broaden 
his  training  and  capacity.  We  seek  to  hold  his  confidence  and 
friendship,  and  to  pin  him  to  the  soil  with  ownership,  that  he  may 
catch  in  the  fire  of  his  own  hearthstone  that  sense  of  responsi- 
bility the  shiftless  can  never  know.  And  we  gather  him  into  that 
alliance  of  intelligence  and  responsibility  that,  though  it  now  runs 
close  to  racial  lines,  welcomes  the  responsible  and  intelligent  of 
any  race.  By  this  course,  confirmed  in  our  judgment  and  justified 
in  the  progress  already  made,  we  hope  to  progress  slowly  but 
surely  to  the  end. 

The  love  we  feel  for  that  race  you  cannot  measure  nor  compre- 
hend. As  I  attest  it  here,  the  spirit  of  my  old  black  mammy  from 
her  home  up  there  looks  down  to  bless,  and  through  the  tumult  of 
this  night  steals  the  sweet  music  of  her  croonings  as  thirty  years 
ago  she  held  me  in  her  black  arms  and  led  me  smiling  into  sleep. 
This  scene  vanishes  as  I  speak,  and  I  catch  a  vision  of  an  old 
Southern  home,  with  its  lofty  pillars,  and  its  white  pigeons  flutter- 
ing down  through  the  golden  air.  I  see  women  with  strained  and 
anxious  faces  and  children  alert  yet  helpless.  I  see  night  come 
down  with  its  dangers  and  its  apprehensions,  and  in  a  big  homely 
room  I  feel  on  my  tired  head  the  touch  of  loving  hands,  now  worn 
and  wrinkled,  but  fairer  to  me  yet  than  the  hands  of  mortal  woman, 
and  stronger  yet  to  lead  me  than  the  hands  of  mortal  man  —  as 
they  lay  a  mother's  blessing  there,  while  at  her  knees,  the  truest 
altar  I  yet  have  found,  I  thank  God  that  she  is  safe  in  her  sanc- 
tuary, because  her  slaves,  sentinel  in  the  silent  cabin  or  guard  at  her 
chamber  door,  put  a  black  man's  loyalty  between  her  and  danger. 

I  catch  another  vision.  The  crisis  of  battle  —  a  soldier  struck, 
staggering,  fallen.  I  see  a  slave,  scuffling  through  the  smoke, 
winding  his  black  arms  about  the  fallen  form,  reckless  of  the 
hurtling  death,  bending  his  trusty  face  to  catch   the  words  that 


HENRY  WOODFIN   GRADY  401 

tremble  on  the  stricken  lips,  so  wrestling  meantime  with  agony 
that  he  would  lay  down  his  life  in  his  master's  stead.  I  see 
him  by  the  weary  bedside,  ministering  with  uncomplaining  patience, 
praying  with  all  his  humble  heart  that  God  will  lift  his  master  up, 
until  death  comes  in  mercy  and  in  honor  to  still  the  soldier's  agony 
and  seal  the  soldier's  life.  I  see  him  by  the  open  grave,  mute,  mo- 
tionless, uncovered,  suffering  for  the  death  of  him  who  in  life  fought 
against  his  freedom.  I  see  him  when  the  mound  is  heaped  and  the 
great  drama  of  his  life  is  closed,  turn  away  and  with  downcast  eyes 
and  uncertain  step  start  out  into  new  and  strange  fields,  faltering, 
struggling,  but  moving  on,  until  his  shambling  figure  is  lost  in  the 
light  of  this  better  and  brighter  day.  And  from  the  grave  comes 
a  voice  saying :  "  Follow  him !  Put  your  arms  about  him  in  his 
need,  even  as  he  put  his  about  me.  Be  his  friend  as  he  was  mine." 
And  out  into  this  new  world  —  strange  to  me  as  to  him,  dazzling, 
bewildering,  both  —  I  follow !  And  may  God  forget  my  people 
when  they  forget  these. 

Whatever  the  future  may  hold  for  them  —  whether  they  plod 
along  in  the  servitude  from  which  they  have  never  been  lifted 
since  the  Cyrenian  was  laid  hold  upon  by  the  Roman  soldiers 
and  made  to  bear  the  cross  of  the  fainting  Christ;  whether  they 
find  homes  again  in  Africa,  and  thus  hasten  the  prophecy  of  the 
psalmist  who  said,  ''And  suddenly  Ethiopia  shall  hold  out  her 
hands  unto  God  "  ;  whether,  forever  dislocated  and  separated,  they 
remain  a  weak  people  beset  by  stronger,  and  exist  as  the  Turk,  who 
lives  in  the  jealousy  rather  than  in  the  conscience  of  Europe ; 
or  whether  in  this  miraculous  republic  they  break  through  the 
caste  of  twenty  centuries  and,  belying  universal  history,  reach  the 
full  stature  of  citizenship  and  in  peace  maintain  it  —  we  shall 
give  them  uttermost  justice  and  abiding  friendship.  And  whatever 
we  do,  into  whatever  seeming  estrangement  we  may  be  driven, 
nothing  shall  disturb  the  love  we  bear  this  republic,  or  mitigate 
our  consecration  to  its  service. 

I  stand  here,  Mr.  President,  to  profess  no  new  loyalty.  When 
General  Lee,  whose  heart  was  the  temple  of  our  hopes  and  whose 


402  BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN   ELOQUENCE 

arm  was  clothed  with  our  strength,  renewed  his  allegiance  to  the 
government  at  Appomattox,  he  spoke  from  a  heart  too  great  to  be 
false,  and  he  spoke  for  every  honest  man  from  Maryland  to  Texas. 
From  that  day  to  this,  Hamilcar  has  nowhere  in  the  South  sworn 
young  Hannibal  to  hatred  and  vengeance,  but  everywhere  to  loyalty 
and  to  love.  Witness  the  soldier  standing  at  the  base  of  a  Con- 
federate monument  above  the  graves  of  his  comrades,  his  empty 
sleeve  tossing  in  the  April  wind,  adjuring  the  young  men  about  him 
to  serve  as  honest  and  loyal  citizens  the  government  against  which 
their  fathers  fought.  This  message,  delivered  from  that  sacred 
presence,  has  gone  home  to  the  hearts  of  my  fellows.  And,  sir,  I 
declare  here,  if  physical  courage  be  always  equal  to  human  aspira- 
tion, that  they  would  die,  sir,  if  need  be,  to  restore  this  republic 
their  fathers  fought  to  dissolve ! 

Such,  Mr.  President,  is  this  problem  as  we  see  it ;  such  is  the 
temper  in  which  we  approach  it ;  such  the  progress  made.  What 
do  we  ask  of  you  ?  P'irst,  patience  ;  out  of  this  alone  can  come  per- 
fect work.  Second,  confidence ;  in  this  alone  can  you  judge  fairly. 
Third,  sympathy  ;  in  this  you  can  help  us  best.  Fourth,  give  us 
your  sons  as  hostages.  When  you  plant  your  capital  in  millions, 
send  your  sons  that  they  may  help  know  how  true  are  our  hearts 
and  may  help  swell  the  Anglo-Saxon  current  until  it  can  carry  with- 
out danger  this  black  infusion.  Fifth,  loyalty  to  the  republic,  for 
there  is  sectionalism  in  loyalty  as  in  estrangement.  This  hour  little 
needs  the  loyalty  that  is  loyal  to  one  section  and  yet  holds  the 
other  in  enduring  suspicion  and  estrangement.  Give  us  the  broad 
and  perfect  loyalty  that  loves  and  trusts  Georgia  alike  with  Massa- 
chusetts —  that  knows  no  South,  no  North,  no  East,  no  West,  but 
endears  with  equal  and  patriotic  love  every  foot  of  our  soil,  every 
state  of  our  Union. 

A  mighty  duty,  sir,  and  a  mighty  inspiration  impel  every  one  of 
us  to-night  to  lose  in  patriotic  consecration  whatever  estranges, 
whatever  divides.  We,  sir,  are  Americans,  and  we  fight  for  human 
liberty.  The  uplifting  force  of  the  American  idea  is  under  every 
throne  on  earth.     France,   Brazil  —  these  are   our  victories.     To 


HENRY  WOODFIN  GRADY  403 

redeem  the  earth  from  kingcraft  and  oppression  —  this  is  our 
mission.  And  we  shall  not  fail.  God  has  sown  in  our  soil  the  seed 
of  his  millennial  harvest,  and  he  will  not  lay  the  sickle  to  the 
ripening  crop  until  his  full  and  perfect  day  has  come.  Our  history, 
sir,  has  been  a  constant  and  expanding  miracle  from  Plymouth 
Rock  and  Jamestown  all  the  way  —  aye,  even  from  the  hour  when, 
from  the  voiceless  and  trackless  ocean,  a  new  world  rose  to  the 
sight  of  the  inspired  sailor. 

As  we  approach  the  fourth  centennial  of  that  stupendous  day, 
when  the  Old  World  will  come  to  marvel  and  to  learn,  amid  our 
gathered  treasures,  let  us  resolve  to  crown  the  miracles  of  our  past 
with  the  spectacle  of  a  republic  compact,  united,  indissoluble  in 
the  bonds  of  love,  loving  from  the  Lakes  to  the  Gulf,  the  wounds  of 
war  healed  in  every  heart  —  serene  and  resplendent  at  the  summit 
of  human  achievement  and  earthly  glory,  blazing  out  the  path  and 
making  clear  the  way  up  which  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  must 
come  in  God's  appointed  time  1 


I 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

■this  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  tounmediate  recau. 


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